4/10/25 Regular Meeting of the Governing Board

001Hello. Good evening. I'm doing a gala this Saturday and the Oh, thank you. That's good. All right. I would like to call this meeting to order. Today's date is Thursday, April 11th, 2025. This is a regular meeting of the governing board of San Marcos Unified School District. Oh, I apologize. April 10th, Thursday. Please let the record reflect that all board members are present with the exception of member Ahmad. [clears throat and cough] Pardon me. San Marcos Unified School District Board of Education meeting is a business meeting of the board held in public. While we welcome and encourage public participation, the expected behavior is that this meeting will be conducted in an orderly fashion. Only the person recognized by the board vice president may speak while that member of the public is speaking. Members of the

002audience must not yell or speak out, regardless of whether you agree or disagree. While public comment is in progress, if you speak out, you are out of order and will be asked to leave the meeting. As adults participating in a public meeting, we need to model civility in our children to our children and students. On behalf of the board of education, we thank you in advance for helping conduct this meeting respectfully. Thank you. Mission statement. The San Marcos Unified School District is an innovative and collaborative community providing an unparalleled paralleled educational experience. Through an immer engaging and supportive environment, all of our students are challenged, inspired, and poised to excel. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. [cough and clears throat] Ready? I aliance to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice

003for all. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? moved by member Carlson and seconded by member M to approve the agenda as presented. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. The board met in close session to discuss matters pertaining to public employee employment transfer, appointment, discipline, dismissal, release, evaluation, reassignment. Government code 54957. No action was taken. Before our student board rep makes their presentation. This is the last opportunity to fill out a speaker card. If you wish to speak during public comment, please complete a request form located in the al cove to the left of the double doors. As you enter the boardroom, please complete the white speaker form if the item you wish to speak about is on the agenda and a blue speaker form if the

004item you wish to speak about is not on the agenda. Please ensure that the speaker form is placed in the designated bin in the al cove. [clears throat] Excuse me. student board members. Okay, thank you. Hey, Trinity. All right, hello everybody. I hope you guys all had a really good spring break because I know I did. It was very nice to have that week off school. Um, so today I'm just going to go over a few of like our spring athletics and then some upcoming events we have going on at Mission Hills. So, first up we have our girls lacrosse team. Um, so our varsity girls have been doing really well this season. Um, with a record of five to four. I've been very lucky to be able to watch some of their games and

005it's just so fun being able to see my friends and just everybody else on the team work together um and just celebrate and it's always a really fun environment. So, I recommend that you guys go if you'd like to watch. Um, so their most recent game was on Monday against Classical Academy where they won with an outstanding score of 18 to3. Um, our JV girls have also been doing really good with their record of three to two. Um, and they also won their most recent game on Monday against Patrick Henry. Next up, we have our boys lacrosse, which I don't think is as fun as girls lacrosse, but each their own. Um, so our varsity boys played many tough teams so far. Um, but they've always put their best out on the field. They have

006a current record of one to one, including our JV boys with the same score of one to one. Um, but I'm sure that they'll get many more as the season progresses. Next up, we have our boys volleyball team, which have had a really amazing season so far, dominating many of their recent games. So, our varsity has a current record of 8 to four. Um, our JV with a record of four to zero, and then our novice with a record of two to zero. So, our JV and Novice have been undefeated this entire season, which I think is really cool. Um, next up, we have our girls beach volleyball team, which is actually really cool because it's one of our new spring sports over at Mission Hills. Um, we're also getting some new volleyball courts, um,

007beach volleyball courts put in, which I think is really cool. Um, they've shared that they've had a really amazing time with their teammates, and they're really enjoying the sport, and they've been playing some pretty hard teams this season, some pretty like well-developed teams that have been there for years and years, but they're navigating it perfectly, and they really enjoy it. So, I'm glad that we decided to add it this year. Next up, we have our baseball team. Um, which has also been playing some pretty hard teams this season, but they've managed to hold their own. So, varsity is a current record of 6 to7, while JV has a record of four to five and freshman with a record of 3 to six. And I'm not sure if there's any baseball lovers out there, but I

008know that our team I think they do good. So, if you like watching baseball, you should come over to Mission Hills and watch. Now, moving on to our softball team. Um, and they've been doing really well this season. I feel like over the years just watching them they always do really well. Um this season they are currently ranking second in both the Palomar League and the San Diego Division One League which I think is really cool and I know that so many of them put so much hard work and effort into this team and I just love watching it turn out well for them. So our varsity girls have a current record of 8 to6 and our JV has a record of three to eight but they're still doing good. Um, so the next one

009uh that I wanted to highlight is our Cardinal Alliance. And I'm sure you hear all about them all throughout the year because it's not just like our band, but it's also um our winter guard and our color guard. And Carl Alliance as a whole is just a really cool program over at Mission Hills. Um, and they're constantly working and practicing before school and after school and I hear them all the time. And they even practice like on the weekends too for hours and it's just so cool to see it pay off for them because I know that they put so much effort in and I know that they're very passionate about it and I think it's really cool. So on Monday um the indoor and winter guard team had a friends and family night at

010Mission Hills where they got to perform and show off all the hard work they've been putting into this and their routines. Um I would also like to share that their very own program leader uh Chris Coughlin was recently awarded Mission Hill Certificated Employee of the Year. So, I think that's really cool that they have someone so strong leading them. The next thing that I want to talk about is just some upcoming events we have going on at Mission Hills. So, next week, April 16th and 17th at 6 p.m., we have our Mission Hills Dance Team spring show, Sunset Boulevard. Um, they've been working really hard in their routines. I have so many friends and I see them again. Same with the Cardinal Alliance. They're there before school, after school, all the time putting in so

011much work to their routines and their show and I think it's really fun. So, I also I think you guys should attend this one because personally the spring show is my favorite because they have a special um like choreography that they do which is the guy girl dance. So, it's really fun to see all the guys that aren't really like danceincclined try and do their best to keep up with the girls and I always find it really funny. Um it's interesting interesting. I find it interesting. Um, and then as always on May 10th, we have our Mission Hills 2025 prom. So, our theme this year is Golden Hour in Greece, and it's at the Konai Resort in San Diego, which I think is really fitting. Um, and I've gotten to see a little bit of

012it, and I know it's going to look so good because there's so much like hard work put into our dances. Um, especially from our ASP junior class officers who are in charge of planning prom. And they've been for many, many months. I always see them outside sitting on their computers working on all kinds of stuff, ordering decorations and just working on making sure the venue looks perfect. And they always do amazing and I'm so excited to attend this year. Um, and then as always, thank you guys for listening and go Grizzlies. By ch by chance, do you know if uh the Grizzlies won uh the ladies softball team against Ramona High? I saw them pull into my parking lot the other day. I can check for you. I'll check. And just so you're aware, uh,

013Mr. Coffin was also named one of the two San Marcos Unified School District teachers of the year for the entire district this year. Trinity, I wanted to give a shout out to your girls lacrosse team. Um, they are awesome. Not only are they a great team, but they have been so great with the younger girls, like the K through eight group. Um, just like yesterday I heard they went to the K through8 practice and brought them Kona ice and they're doing these clinics with them and they're getting them pumped up because it's kind of a newer sport for a lot of these kids, you know. So, just wanted to give them a shout out. I think it's pretty awesome. Very good. Next, we have uh Dr. Johnson, superintendent update. Thank you. Couple of Sorry. Yes,

014I was I was about to say uh so so our two board representatives that are two student board representatives who are scheduled for this evening is Mission Hills and Twin Oaks High and the Twin Oaks High student. Sorry, thank you for I was about to say it and then I forgot. Uh Twin Oaks High student actually graduated. You know, those students are on other schedule. So, so that's a really good thing. And and Gar said on on short notice I couldn't get you somewhere else. So, it was just going to be Trinity uh this month. And Sydney can't stay away. She loves the she loves the the board meeting. So, she came for support. So, thank you. But we did not put her on the spot to do it on impromptu. Couple of items for

015the board uh this evening. First of all, I know I have I have mentioned to you a number of times in the past the this North County Superintendent Network that we've been working on and we're almost done for this year and we're going to gear up again for the fall, but I wanted to give a little bit more um background kind of on what this group has been up to. It's really exciting work. It's really it's really inspiring um forward-looking work. So uh the vision of this group as you know this is a group of about 11 12 13 districts across North County and North County coastal um and the vision when we started off was to be a model innovation kind of region where all learners are thriving uh with partnership among districts to

016achieve whole learner outcomes. Those two there's two things in that sentence that are actually really important. Partnership among districts is not all as common as you might think it is. I mean, people are on on our own islands and we're doing our own thing and there can be places where it's actually very competitive, but um the the the districts across North County were really very very collaborative. So, it's exciting to do this work. Um learner focused, innovative leadership, integrity, courageous action. You see the values there. What has emerged over um the course of the past two two years is kind of a common set of core um practices or systems that we are working on developing together which you see bulleted out there. Ports of graduate strategic plan uh competencies and progressions all three of

017which we have here in the district. A scorecard or accountability metrics which we are developing as you as you know you saw a first draft of that earlier this year. These things are important because as I mentioned before for 22 23 years we were under NCLB um and in California we had our API scores and it really really narrow. We had all these conversations when we were doing our strategic plan and our portrait a couple years ago but um for for a long time several decades the definition of what a successful student looks like was very very narrow and it was pretty much show me your grades, show me your test score that's all I need to know. um after NCLB kind of expired that opened up a conversation amongst many of us uh to

018you know what what really are the metrics that we would want to look at what what really do we want to make sure that our students are are leaving us with what are those companies that that opened up the whole portrait of a graduate uh conversation and so it's really exciting to be able to do this work u with other north county districts and some of the the gentlemen you see here the the I'll call them the veterans on the right side of this photo are um some really really renowned owned international researchers. The guy third from the right there is Dr. Michael Fulen. I I think I've unabashedly called myself a fanboy. I was reading his stuff when I was in my M's program in 96 or whenever that was. And um which is

019really cool. I will say I I told Dr. Campbell this. There was a meeting earlier this year. We had the group meeting. I walked into the room and Dr. Fen turned and said, "Hi, Andy." And I was like, "I'm done. I am done. I am on firstname basis. He knows who I am. So I can I can retire." No, but it's been really exciting. So, another part of this particular meeting that I wanted to highlight for you. This, as you can see, this last meeting a couple weeks ago was held at Cal State San Marcos. And as part of our meeting, we had a chance to um uh hear from a couple of the professors there. Uh particularly, they were talking to us about what students what from their perspective, what students need to be

020successful. In other words, like when they're seeing students not be successful, like what's going on with them. That was really helpful for us as as K12 educators. And these were the three things they listed, which was really, really interesting. The first one they said cognitive patience. So for the students who are in the in the room this evening, I want you to hear this. The professors at Cal State were saying that many of that what you're going to what you're going to have in college is is hard. It's not you're not going to get it after the first lesson, second lesson. You got to stick with it. And so what they were saying was if the students can just learn cognitive patience, like it's going to be hard. I'm going to need to keep working

021at this and eventually the light bulbs will start going on. Um you'll be okay. And there are some kids who just for for whatever reason they just get too frustrated and they give up and that's going to be hard. Those other two are also really I thought really interesting. Curiosity and fearlessness in learning. I'll put those together. [clears throat] Excuse me. And what they meant by that was it was really fascinating. And what they said was that they're noticing that many of the students that that are coming out of K12 systems are very accustomed to they spent four years even more maybe show me what I have to do to get the grade to get the GPA to get the points which I understand um but but they get to the college level and they're

022nervous to try something new whether it be a new course or a new assignment or a new project or whatever because they're too concerned about getting the points. And so they said, "You gota you got to let that go a little bit. This is college. This is the this is the time when you can really branch out, spread out, try new things, do new things, and don't worry so much about the things that that we probably have all inculcated in you for the past four years." So, I thought that was really interesting. Um, we're pretty much concluded for this year, but I'm really looking forward to uh the work next year, and we're now to the to the to the uh the point where we're going to start bringing in ED services folks and other

023people to really start putting meat on some of these bones. So, I just wanted to give you guys a little bit more of that background. Okay. Okay, now for something completely different. I wanted to give another update. I've been doing uh giving updates the past couple of meetings about the ongoing kind of federal department of education, California department things uh that have been happening. So there was uh last week a couple of um communications between the federal DOE and the California the CD. Um and I'm going to go ahead and just read through some of the what's on this slide because I think it's important. So, the Department of of Education last week sent a letter to the CDE requiring the state to certify their compliance with anti-discrimin anti-discrimination obligations in order to continue receiving

024federal financial assistance. You may or may not have seen that in the news. There was there was um uh some news coverage around that. The certification form, from what I understand, again, it went did not go to local districts. It went to the CDE. essentially says that education agencies cannot discriminate on the basis of race and that the DOE believes that some diversity, equity, and inclusion programs may unlawfully do so. That's their that's their assertion. And so they were requiring the CDE to make uh to to file the certification. Following that communication that went to the CDE, the CDE then communicated with all local districts throughout the state. And this is what they said. Uh, in part, as we review the requested certification, we want to assure you that the CDE and local education agencies

025in our state that receive federal funds do regularly provide assurances that programs and services are and will be in compliance with Title Six of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. California's ELAs have already submitted such asurances for 2425. In addition, LEA compliance with Title Six and other laws is monitored annually through the state's federal compliance monitoring process and multiple accountability mechanisms. The CD plans to respond to the ED department on behalf of the state and its eleas by the requested date and they they told us we will share a copy of our response for you for your information once we've submitted it. So again, this is this is just a long- winded way of saying to be continued. We're still monitoring and waiting to see kind of what happens. But um I wanted to highlight

026this because I know when when these things hit the papers or they hit the news, you get the little, you know, the little blurb and people start wondering, okay, so is something going to change? What what is what's what's happening? What does all mean for us? Um, again, in our in our district, it is still we're waited to see how this all this stuff plays out. So, um, setting the the legal kind of wranglings aside for the moment, I think it is important to talk again about the district's equity work. Um and um just to highlight that the the heart of our work here in the district um is to make sure that we over time we are developing and building a system that works for all students, not just some students, not most students,

027but all students um and that's uh what is in our strategic plan. So, um, you know, these laws are going to play out the way that they play out. Um, and we'll comply with whatever changes are mandated for us. But I did want to take a moment and just highlight what we have in our strategic plan in our board of trustees uh, adopted equity statement. This is not new to you. You've seen this before. But I want to say this is really important because when we were doing our strategic plan was three years ago, we the board was very clear about we want to make sure that that equity is a part of what we do and and and that we're achieving these outcomes for all students. Um, one of the conversations we had at

028that time was let's let's go let's take some time and let's actually define what we mean by equity because I have said equity is one of those words that you say it to five people and you get 10 different definitions of what it means. So let's put it in plain English and let's get it in our plan. So, um I actually I'm going to take a second and just read this because this I think this is this is a wellcrafted statement. The portrait of a graduate is a promise that we've made to every SMU SMUSD student and we are committed to providing an unparalleled educational experience which is in our mission statement that you read this morning or this evening that prepares every graduate to be future ready from the most able to the most

029vulnerable of our students. Racial, social, economic, social or cultural factors should not predict whether or not students are prepared for college, career and civic engagement. So to deliver to deliver on that promise, we'll continue to reflect on and refine our instructional practices to ensure they're meeting the needs of all learners. We'll ensure that every student feels connected to school and is engaged, challenged, and inspired in their learning. We'll provide the support needed for each student to develop academic proficiency and the competencies outlined in our portrait graduate. We'll identify and address district systems, policies, and or practices that are unintentionally getting in the way of the success of students. We'll ensure that our campuses are safe, welcoming, and inclusive places for all students, staff members, and families. We'll help students discover and cultivate their unique gifts,

030talents, and interests that each one possesses. And we'll partner with our families and our community to support the success of all SMU students with empathy, curiosity, and respect. So again, this is an aspirational statement clearly. Um, are we there yet? Is this the reality for every single one of our 19,000 plus students? No, it's not. Uh but our goal is to over time make sure that our systems are serving all of our kids and that's at the end of the day that's all our equity work is. Um I think actually I don't on my previous slide I had the init the acronym DEI. I think that's the first time I've ever even typed that that acronym. We just it's not um it's not something that we're that we're um concerned about. This is this is

031the statement that that I think the board that I know the board has adopted and that our that our staff is uh working on. So, I just wanted to clarify that. Okay. And um a great example of that is rising stars. So, you the board is aware that our San Marcos Chamber of Commerce honors every month rising stars from one from San Marcos High, one from Mission Hills, and one from Twin Oaks each each month. And I wanted to highlight these students in particular because last month's they're always inspiring. I mean, Dr. What is it you always say? This is the best Tuesday morning of the month. Yeah, it's it's it's it's really phenomenal. Um, and I'm so appreciative again to this to the Chamber of Commerce. The mayor is always there if she can

032be there. There are city councilmen members there when they can be there. There's uh local businesses. It's really great. Um, and this last this last month's was really really inspiring. Now, these three students, their stories are theirs to tell. So, I'm not going to I'm not going to go through all of it, but just to tell you that each one of them has a really compelling story. It's heartwarming. It's heartbreaking in some instances, but each one of them, it's inspiring because the reason they're honored is because they've overcome challenges that quite frankly, you listen to them and you're like, I don't know how you even can stand up there and I mean, you're 16 years old, you're 17 years old, and I couldn't imagine going through some of the things that you're describing that you're

033going through right now. It's it's it's one of those ones that if if you know, whatever whichever one of us has to be there, we are always at each one of these meet these rising stars because it's really phenomenal. So Jason Jason who you met last month uh with the ris group uh and Christa and Karen shared some stories and it was really really phenomenal and just want to highlight a couple other uh amazing staff members like I always like to do that. So Ani Diaz Cha Diaz Chavez uh was she's a community leazison here and she was recently honored at the empowering Latinos futures conference and she's going to be on the cover of North County and forward magazine. So that's really exciting. Um and she's got a big smile there. So, we wanted

034to highlight that. And Crystal Thomas, our FFA uh teacher at San Marcos High, our a teacher at San Marcos High, has been named finalist for a educator of the year. And that's across 13 states. So, we're pulling for her, we're cheering for her, we're crossing our fingers for her, and we believe that Crystal is most most deserving of that of that honor. So, congratulations to Crystal. And then finally, I just wanted to remind everybody that that on May 1st, it's a little earlier this year just because of calendars and scheduling, but uh this is wow, three weeks away. Amy, are you ready? Are we ready? We'll be ready. We'll be ready. We'll doing our we're doing our year in review. And this is always a a fun annual event just to have uh the board

035come together and hear from staff and students about all the amazing things that have happened throughout the year across our district. And I want to make sure everybody marks their calendars. We'll have a reception at 3:30. Last year we had farm animals. We don't no farm animals this time, right? Okay. We've had the band out there before. I I said we had Yeah, we had Oh, we we do have baby pigs. I I recommended bringing the steer. We have We They're totally cool. We had the We had the goats here last time. This time I recommended, why don't we bring all the steer? We got like four or five big giant steer. They didn't like that idea, but the pigs the piglets is not a bad idea at all. So, we'll see. We'll see what

036we can bluff. So anyway, I would like to everybody to hope everybody marks their calendars and can join us for that. Um, on tonight's agenda, we do have Korea, right? Is Korea here? I didn't see there you guys are. Oh my gosh, all of a sudden I had a moment of panic. Creo Elementary School is going to be presenting on their um on the amazing work that they're doing at their school. I'm super excited to hear about the update an update from the group working on middle school experience particularly at San Marcos Middle School. So that's a big big heavy lift and you guys have been doing amazing work. So we're excited to hear that. And then we have the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee on tonight's agenda. And with that, we are off and running.

037If I can answer any questions, I'm happy to do so at this time. I don't have a question. I just wanted to thank you for um Can we hear me? Hello. Are you on? I am on. Yeah, it says I'm on. Um I just wanted to thank you. There we go. Good job. Thanks. I just wanted to thank you for uh speaking out loud our affirmation, our commitment to equity and inclusion. Um it's something that the board worked really hard on and um I know that the uh uh the groups that need to hear it really need to hear it. And so I think that the more that we can say those things out loud, I think, you know, um it's it's good to to reaffirm our commitments. And I appreciate you um making a

038point of doing that. I wanted to now we are on we are cooking with gas. Um, at the beginning of the presentation, you shared the photo of you with the other superintendent and then those three bullet points that the Cal State professors had suggested. And I just wanted to call out that I think it's amazing that our district is thinking about things holistically and we're partnering with the local university because I don't think that's standard. Um, you know, I'm kind of new to all this, but I don't think that every K through2 district is thinking holistically, talking to universities, finding out what those gaps are and trying to close them. So, thank you. I thought that was really, really neat and um helpful for all of us, all the stakeholders to think about, okay, how

039are we getting these kids ready and are we talking to the next group that's going to inherit them? So, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I I want to say in fairness, I know that we have other school districts that do similar things. Uh but I didn't tell you guys this either. I was invited to speak on a podcast just today uh with a couple other superintendents and the host actually said that. He said, "I know about San Marcos that or San Marcos Unified that you guys," he called us the poster child for those kinds of partnerships with our local universities and we're all right here and they we often talk about San Marcos being that educational hub of North County and so yeah, thank you. It's it's important efforts Thank you. Well said. Next we have

040presentations. I'd like to call up Coreo Elementary School principal Amanda Katon. Thank you. Good evening. Good evening, Dr. Johnson, our cabinet, and our board members. I know we have some new board members. You haven't met us just yet. My name is Amanda Katon. the proud principal of CO Elementary. Good evening. And I'm Shannon Williams, our assistant principal. And we just want to let you know CIO is one of those amazing schools that even though it's San Marcos Unified, we actually reside in Carl'sbad. And so we have a really cool and unique community. And we're just going to show you all about it tonight. So, normally when we've come before, we've brought students with us because we love to show off our students. They're so innovative. They're so creative, and they just want to be heard.

041And I told them, you guys, I just don't know that we're going to be able to do that this time, but you know what? We couldn't get away from it. So, we just have a little short snippet, especially for our new board members, so you could just get a little idea about Creo Elementary. Fifth graders who display good character traits and are hardworking apply to be both the cult. Both the cult is character traits in action. Are you seriously doing my job right now? Guys, what's up? Well, we wanted to show this before our school. What better to bring them with the principal's office. Well, I guess that's a pretty good idea. Let's get Hey, let's go check out some places on campus. The STEM lab is right here. Let's go say hi to Miss

042Amy's. And I'm This is our career garden. It is run by our wonderful PTO members. We grow some vegetables here. Let's see what else is in our garden. Hi, this is the middle of our garden. Behind us is the Leo Ranch. That's where we got our name. And over here we have some bushes and birds of paradise. Hi, this is Penny and Jesse. We're checking out the music room. Let's go say hi to Miss O. Welcome to our library. We're going to say hi to our amazing librarian, Miss McCoy. How are you guys? Good. Glad you're here. Our library of Korea is one of the very best places in school because this is where all of the kids at Koreo feel connected to their friends and their teachers. They find books with characters that match

043their own stories and with characters have experiences different from theirs. and it's our home base for our student leadership programs like student council and library leaders. Hi, my name is Nika and I'm Pora. As you may have heard, our school is currently under construction. Korea is getting a brand new turf field and running track as well as a new blacktop area with basketball courts and bowls. We can't wait. Hi, this is Jacob and I'm Kai and this is where we line up in our fitness teams. Here's a wonderful teacher, Miss B. Okay. Yeah, that's our fifth grade uh Colt TV and they're just amazing. So, I love that they put that together. Yes. So, highlighting some of the things that make Korea the special place it is. You saw our physical education program led by

044Mrs. Bener and we're fortunate to have a robust running club. Students are running actively even without a track. We've made a track around the library and through the hall and we have parent volunteers every morning out there with their iPads scanning the kids QR codes. Um and we have kids that have accumulated over 200 miles already this school year. So um we love our running club and we're excited for the district track meet coming up in May. Um, and then as you saw, we have our wonderful music program led by Mrs. O. And we're looking forward to our honor choir performance with the district next week. Our fabulous library led by Mrs. McCoy. And she also um is our lead student council uh teacher and they come up with skits and help us uh teach

045our character traits each month to our students. And then we're so fortunate to have a PTO sponsored STEM lab with Mrs. Amy's who works with our students and our teachers twice a month where students come to the STEM lab and get to do hands-on activities. Anything from coding to robotics, building Legos, so many great experiences that tie to what they're doing in the classroom. And then she also creates our cult TV with our fifth grade student leaders. Another thing that makes Korea the special place it is is our annual Marine Corps food drive and flag salute that we do each year. And this is a long-standing tradition we've had at Korea for over 20 years where our students prepare and sing patriotic songs. We invite Camp Pendleton Marines to come down and we invite any

046active and retired uh military members in our community. We prepare a breakfast for them and they come and enjoy breakfast and then we have a studentled performance to thank them for their service and then also we collect it used to be a canned food drive is what how it started and then over time we realized that there's other needs and so this year we started a household items drive and we were collecting everything from bathroom towels, toilet paper, diapers, toothpaste, toasters. So, we were so um fortunate to be able to provide those donations to our local Marines and K USI came this year, too. And they filmed us for their for their morning. Um I just wanted to just share with our new board members. We had four strategic goals moving into the academic portion

047that we focused on this year. And goal three is really where we have spent the heart of our work with our staff and our students. and that's talking about glad um strategies in the nextgen professional development training. We're going to share with you some of those things right now, but I want to know I want to share with you where that all stemmed from. Over the last couple of years, we've noticed that our students that are emergent bilingual, perhaps they're free or reduced lunch or their students with disabilities, they were continuing to perform in the lower brackets when we talk about ELPAC or the CASP assessments. And specifically, the piece that was holding back our students from either getting a good score on the CASP or reclassifying in on the ELPAC was writing. And so

048we really took a hard look about a year ago and we started to look at what are our systems in place to make sure that students have access to strong writing, you know, curriculum and instruction. And so we partnered with Sylvia Jacobson who is our director of multicultural education. And even though we cannot do a full full out uh GLAD program, it requires a lot of money and funding that we don't always have. We, she said, "What about doing a next generation one where we take concepts from GLAD and we use those in our classroom with our staff and our students." And GLAD is guided language acquisition and design. I'm going to scoot over our action so we can get right to it. And that's specific strategies that we use with our students in our

049teaching to really enhance a student's oral capacity to share what they know. And by building their oral content and their knowledge content, they're able to write better. They're better readers and they just become more proficient in their output. And Shannon's going to share with you a couple of the steps that we went through to get there. So, Mrs. Katon and I worked with Sylvia in August before even our teachers and students were on campus to develop a plan of how we could roll this out and and get this instruction at the teachers fingertips and then get these strategies in the classrooms so that our students had access um to building their vocabulary and becoming stronger writers. So, we originally started uh with Sylvia coming to our very first staff meeting in September and launched our

050goals for writing and started teaching about how we can bring these strategies to life in our classroom. And then we were able to provide our teachers with a half-day grade level release with either Sylvia or Malia who came and they modeled strategies for us. And this is actually Malia in one of our fourth grade classrooms where she was modeling some of these glad strategies so teachers could see it in action with their own students. And then this is just an idea of just to share with you guys. This is what happens when GLAD gets in the hands of teachers and students. They absolutely just explode with ideas. And many of these uh photographs that we wanted to share with you, those are students working together independently without the teacher sharing their ideas, working with teamwork.

051Um we have different strategies that we've got on here where we have our I always call them the wrong thing. Uh I always call them gallery or they're observation charts. There's so with God there's so many components to it. Uh Mrs. Yates is doing um she's doing expert groups. Mr. Retszer is doing a pictorial input. And through the use of images and graphics, kids can start to make connections about what they know about language. And then this is just some of the output. This is all of our kids writing, all of the things that they could do. And we had to take a picture of Muhammad and put it in here. He has become an exceptional writer, writing more than he's only a second grader, writing multiple pages about robots and how they help people.

052So, we wanted to make sure we could capture that. But as you can see, it's just visually the kids are just they're looking through pictures. They're adding their details and their language abilities are just coming to life and our teachers are so excited about the program. So, this was one of the things that we really wanted to highlight with you guys. And we know it's a multi-year process and we're excited to see some gains. We're a little anxious. We're a little anxious and but we're also very excited to see how our students perform on this year's Elpack and CASP. And of course, we have to recognize um not only was Jamie Laura one of our fifth grade teachers recognized as teacher of the year for Coreo, but she is one of San Marcos Unifi's teachers

053of the year. So um we're so grateful to have Jamie at Coreo. She was willing to take the risk this year to partner up with our fifth grade education specialist, Carlos Crada, where they have truly embraced the co-taught model for fifth graders. We know that as the career fifth graders make their way to SEMS, um, they have the option of a co-taught or a collab model. And so we wanted to really get our fifth graders ready for that experience. And it has been so powerful and amazing, not only for our special education students, but all the other students in the classroom. There's two adults in there constantly. We don't have kids coming and going to get services and then coming back in and feeling like, where do I pick up? What did I miss? So,

054um, we've been very fortunate to do this co- teaching model and we're hoping that we can continue that next year with our fifth graders to prepare them for middle school. And we just want to say thank you. Um, and to our new board members, um, just to give you a little bit of insight, Shannon and I are not just administrators, we're administrators married to teachers that teach in San Marcos Unified School District. Both PE teachers, by the way, so we can connect really well on that. and we're also parents of San Marcos Unified students. So, just to show you that we are so invested in the success of every single child in our district. So, thank you very much for having us. Any questions? Questions. I just thought the GLAD program just sounds incredible. And

055I also like the resourcefulness of, you know, not knowing all the details, but you you didn't have the budget to roll it out maybe in the most ideal circumstances, but you were able to make it work with what you could and do this sort of um modified program. And so, it's really neat to see the see the evidence of that. And um yeah, excited to hear more. I just wanted to thank the um kids for putting the video together because I haven't been on campus yet. So, it gave me an idea and seeing some of the rooms and everything. So, it was great. Thank you very much. Next is our middle school experience. Oh, no. Yes. Middle school experience director of curriculum and instruction, Nikki Dana. [clears throat and cough] Good evening. My name is

056Nikki Donner. I'm the director of curriculum instruction for San Marcus Unified. Um, good evening board members. Dr. Johnson. I was so thrilled and overwhelmed when Dr. Campbell asked if I would come present some of the dynamic work that's happening in middle school experience because as you look across the county and you look at districts who are engaged in this work, we really are leading the way in making significant changes in middle school. Um, I wanted to do a little grounding work with us before we got started in terms of the portrait of the graduate. When you look across the portrait of the graduate, you could see middle school experience all over the place, but I really wanted to bring um to light the objectives that you see here because they exemplify and they articulate what

057are the outcomes we want to see as we're shifting and redefining what middle school looks like for all students. Um, it talks about identifying and building individual strengths and interest, making sure that we're learning and growing with the community, the classroom community, and the school community, and that we feel safe and um that we belong on each of our campuses. I also wanted to take a moment and um bold each and every in these statements because when we started this work with middle school, we talked to our middle school kiddos and what they started to say to us was, "It's working for some, but it's not working for all." So when we ask our middle school um site admin and our teacher leaders to engage in this work, each and every student is at the

058forefront of their thinking. But I'm here to talk a little bit about the work itself. And so I wanted to take a moment and talk about how we've gone about doing this work. It's really important in San Marcos Unifi to ground oursel in some research so we have some backbone of knowledge of how we're moving through. Um the team s administrators, teacher leaders dove into some grounding pieces of research. Um, one of them was the key findings from how people learn. How does somebody move from being a novice in something to being an expert in something and what does that look like? We talked about the stages of development. We looked at the brain and how does the brain change from being an infant to being a 22-year-old adult. And we also looked at adolescent

059development and you guys can imagine in middle school that is key key research, right? Um, from those conversations we had, what we recognized is that to be able to achieve the objectives that we spoke about on the last slide, we needed to implement some learning conditions. And so what you see on the right hand side is what the team co-labored around to develop uh four different learning conditions and we call them the pillars. um that we are grounded in community and connection, that our learning is personalized and flexible, that we uh co-create through shared power, and that kids are engaged in things that are skills driven and relevant to them. Additionally, our middle school principles are engaged in continuous improvement cycles. So, what they've done is throughout the summer and even starting this spring and

060into the next summer, um they identify some leadership moves that they want to be able to do to implement these conditions. They identify teacher behaviors they want to see in the classroom and what they want to see from students. They gather data, they analyze the data, they review it, and then they revise their plan as they move forward. Lastly, a lot of this middle school experience is in the classroom itself. And what we recognized is that we needed to engage our middle school teacher leaders in the methodologies of universal design for learning. And if you don't know what that is, this is a methodology that really centers that there is a myth of average. There is no average kid. Each kid is individual and how do we then anticipate barriers that some kids may have

061getting to the experiences that we are offering and how do we design around those barriers over the course of the year. You have seen two of our three amazing middle schools and tonight you're going to hear from one more. So I just want to kind of highlight where we've been. Um Katie Buffam and her team from Woodland Park came to talk to you about how they are grounded in community and connection that the students are agents of their own learning and they they have really taken that research and those theories into practice when they talk to you about the empathy project the community and culture ASB and this Bulldog's journal and I don't know if you guys remember this piece but every Tuesday morning every single kid and adult on campus takes time to do

062journaling and reflection and metacognition. While that sounds really nice, that is grounded in the research that to be able to be a learner, to move from novice to expert, you have to engage in metacognition. So, they've taken this research and really put it into practice at wom park changing your thinking, thinking about your thinking. What did I used to know? What do I know now? How do I apply it forward? Thank you for that. You've also heard from Trisha Story and her team how they are grounded in the skills driven and relevant pillar. They've really taken that learning as an integrated experience. It's not just an academic endeavor, but it's also a social emotion endeavor. And they talked with you about the probability carnival, the electoral college. They even did a science ethics fair. And

063if you guys remember that kids had to take a position on ethics, uh, designer DNA or are we going to use GMOs and they had to convince funders to invest in their research, right? So, they've taken this idea of being skills driven and relevant to heart over at Santao Middle School. And in just a moment, you're going to hear from the amazing San Marcos Middle School and Nikki Scott and her team about how they are grounded in community and connection. They are taking very seriously the stages of brain development. What does it look like at sixth, seventh, and eighth grade? They've taken to heart what is this learning is integrated. How do we make something? How do we create experiences that are interconnected? and they've done so through small learning communities, restorative accountability projects, which

064I'm so excited for you to hear about because it's really about how students develop their own agency, how successful they've been in the I can attendance matters, and their social skills group. So, without further ado, it's my whole segue to San Marcos Middle. Come on up. While they're coming up, I wanted to provide a little little context. Don't turn my volume up, Tom. I'm going to scare everybody here. Um but just to remind the board of how we even landed on this this work uh originally was when we were doing our portrait of a graduate and we said you know this is these are the outcomes we want for all of our students and then we started looking at our system from you know TK to 12 pre-K to 12 really and and talking about

065you know where where kids are many kids are being successful where where students aren't being as successful what's happening and and one of the questions we asked is there a is there any any uh trends around like a time when this happens and the answer on that question kept coming back middle school u this is the time when kids are making decisions about who they are as students and is school my thing and it's it's a it's a really pivotal time so that's why we decided let's let's really put some effort effort and emphasis on the middle school experience our first thing um as Nikki didn't mention this but one of the things we started okay let's let's get out there and let's see what good models are out there that we might be able

066to replicate and it crickets um there really aren't any really great models that we could find that were replicable. There are some there are some encouraging practices out there that we certainly did learn from, but the way I like to put it is if this is a this is a a a switch that if it could have been flipped like somebody would have flipped it a long time ago. Um it's just not that kind of a work. So I really really really appreciative of the team for what they're doing because what you're going to hear on a couple slides is going to sound great. It's a ton of work. It's a really really heavy lift and requires perseverance and requires leadership and requires patience and tears and sweat and all the things. So, a little

067bit of context for them. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Johnson. And the end, you did it. You did our presentation. [laughter] Well, good evening everyone. I am the proud principal, uh, Nikki Scott of San Marcos Middle School. Um, so good evening everyone. Good to see you again. And my mantra is it takes a village. And so tonight, um, you're going to hear from the village. um encompassing not just certificated uh staff members but also classified. Um as Nikki shared with you our San Marcos Middle School implementation, we really took a deep dive into our systems. Um because part of changing the system or middle school redesigning is really looking at how do we holistically um support the whole child. And so the wheel really shows that it takes these systems of academic change. Um, it

068takes a system of behavior, attendance, and also social skills because the brain of the middle school student is evolving, always evolving. And if you know middle school students, they need a lot of support. Um, and so knowing that, we had to change the conditions at our school. Uh we looked at fifth graders coming into uh middle school and we knew that the the connectedness, how do we get students to be connected? We had to really change the system of how do we bring them into the fold of middle school. And so we developed a small learning community taken from the research. Um we know that when students come into a new environment, they need a lot of support. And so you'll hear tonight how we were able to develop the small learning community also known

069as SLC. We also looked at our behavior um system. uh we moved and shifted from the punitive most definite a deficit mindset of how do we condition behavior and rather than giving students um uh susp uh suspending students which really goes against that whole uh community and connectedness, we took a dive into how do we restore students through a restorative approach also known as our w called restorative accountability project. So you'll hear a little bit about that. um we know that students um who don't come to school, right, their grades are affected, their social skills are affected. And so we really took looked at our um systems of attendance and how we looked at our data and we got to the root of how students and why students were not coming to school. And so

070you'll hear a little bit about our system approach of attendance. And then lastly, social skills. Every Monday morning we have social skills at San Marcos Middle School. So there is a lesson that basically teaches um students how to be citizens in their world. Again looking at the child through a holistic approach and centering our systems around each child. And so with that I'm going to ask my team to introduce themselves, their role and talk about these four areas. Hi. Um, I'm Charity Shepard. I am the future ready middle school TOSA at San Marcos Middle School. And I'm joined by Melanie Lamer who is um one of our SLC teachers and um our sixth grade math teacher. Um, and we're excited to share just a quick overview of San Marcos Middle School Small Learning Community or

071the SLC. Other members of our SLC team include Jesse Mateier, Samantha Stewart, uh, Jen Flanigan, and Michelle Cini. Uh, one thing that makes our team unique is that we don't have a traditional leader. Um, instead we each contribute based on our strengths and our passions. This collaborative model allowed us to design experiences that were both standards aligned and deeply meaningful for students. Last year, we participated in the middle school redesign training which challenged us to rethink issues around engagement, behavior, and academic success. To better understand the student experience, I conducted empathy interviews with our sixth um through eighth graders. And then I also went to our fifth graders, the three feeder schools that we have. Um, and the quotes you'll hear today as we speak come directly from those interviews. Um, so students voice we

072decided or we looked at um, and brain research really formed the foundation of our learner design process and that feedback led us to build our learning model. Um, and that learning model is our around our central three essential pillars here. The first of which is belonging and emotional safety. The transition to middle school can feel isolating. One elementary student said, "I want to belong." Another shared, "I'm nervous about making friends. I don't feel like I'm going to fit in." A middle schooler reflected, "Elementary felt like a family. Middle school just feels like a bunch of people going through routines." Brain science tells us that relationships are the foundation of learning and that students can't fully engage until they feel emotionally safe. Our SLC builds that foundation. Our five teacher team shared 156 sixth grade students

073allowing for strong relationships and support. Classrooms were grouped together to promote connections and students started each day in their den, a home base where they created den names and logos and competed in den team challenges. DEN teachers also served as the primary contact for families creating consistency and stronger partnerships. So our second pillar um is personalized and relevant learning is a common theme. It was a common theme in the interviews. Um, and students they felt more connected in classes where teachers got to know them, allowing learning to reflect their interest and need. The issue isn't necessarily ability. It's relevance, identity, and capacity. When learning is meaningful and appropriately challenging, students re-engage. Our SLC supports this through responsive instruction guided by data and anchored in UDL strategies and project-based learning. The final pillar, shared ownership and

074student voice, also grew from student insights in last year's um last year's interviews. One middle school student said, "Teachers should have high expectations, but be willing to be flexible when needed." Another emphasized creating expectations as a class. so everyone understands what's required. This shows that students want to help shape their learning, not follow along. Our SLC fosters this through co-created norms, collaborative planning, and shared expectations. This balance of structure and student agency aligns with what brain research says adolescence need most, clarity, voice, and choice. This year has been a lot of work and yes, challenging at times, but the connections, engagement, and growth have made it all worth it. Small learning communities aren't just a structural change, but a cultural shift. One that centers on belonging, relevance, and empowerment so that every student is equipped

075to thrive. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Marissa Sanchez and I am one of the school counselors at San Marcos Middle School and I will be talking about attendance. Um so we have shifted the way that we've gone about um helping students and our families with attendance. As you can see, uh, in the previous year, we were well up above the 18 almost 18% in chronic absenteeism and, um, we have a goal this year to meet 13% and as you can see, we are well on our way to reaching that goal. Um, and so I will be talking about some of the things that we have implemented to help us reach this goal. And one big factor has been the shift that we have had with our home visits. and we have

076actually changed the name. It's now called wellness visits. Um, and our wellness visits are conducted every Monday. Um, we review data from the previous week and we really focus on students and the why uh behind their absences. Um, phone calls are not enough, right? Sometimes you have to get in there and really face tof face um meet with the families and see what is going on and more specifically um coming at it in a way where students and families feel supported and it's not punitive. Um and one way which we do this is by providing goodie bags. Um, so as you can see, you received a goodie bag with a post-it um, a postcard and it has a really sweet message that we try to leave for students along with our business card um, from

077our support team as well as our administrator. If we aren't able to connect with the families or the student when we attend the welcome visits, then at least they have our information available on hand where they can readily call us and um reach out for any support that they may need. Um and that has been very impactful as you can see our data um shows and also helps us create those meaningful connections and relationships because as we know the more connected students feel the more they're going to want to show up to school. Um, and along with that, we have our SEAL Monday morning lessons. Um, in which we also help showcase different ways that students can feel empowered on campus and helping them learn coping skills to manage with other stressors, including with their

078attendance or what is impacting their attendance on our campus. And moving on, I will introduce our social worker, Deshawn Powell, who will kind of give you a little bit more insight on the groups that we have that support social emotional learning as well. Thank you very much. Good evening. Um, I am accompanied today with one of my practicing social workers from Cal State San Marcos. We cannot do the wonderful work we do at San Marcos without a team of people. And we have about seven uh amazing practices and social workers who assist me. um every day and dealing with um social behaviors with our with our kiddos. Um with our social groups, we run about we've run about 10 groups um between this semester and last semester. Um using evidence-based practices and research, we've come

079up with these groups to deal with the strain that our kids and our families deal with on a daily basis. Um we used our panorama data to identify the kids who's dealing with a lot of strain and uh emotional behaviors. Um and one of the ones I want to point out new that's new this year is called um rising together. Um that group was brought out because our kids were not connected to the school and we also brought um something different this year was we did it in Spanish. And so I want to just allow a small bit of time to allow my practice and social workers who ran that group to talk about the amazing work that she's done with connecting our kids, our EB students. Hi, as was said, my name is uh

080Erica. I am a Cal State San Marco student in my second year as a social worker. Um and I'm so excited to share with you a little bit more about the Spanish group for Rising Together. Uh so one of the things I really want to highlight is that this is a culturally responsive and collaborative piece where we take um student initiative and their leadership into account as we talk about like well where is uh how do you want to be connected to the school and they've really come in excited, engaged um and just always asking about like what when's the next time that we can meet? Uh we see that they have decreased barriers. We know that with our um Hispanic population, they sometimes have barriers with uh getting mental health services or getting the

081support they need. And so with this program, they are not only feeling much more connected to the school, they're also seeking help, they are um just ready to learn. I'm always so blown away with just how uh engaged they are, how much they want to learn, and just be part of the spaces. Um, one of the things that we did was um, uh, we had them, uh, contribute to the San Marcos San Marcos Middle School rock garden. They want to do more around the school campus just to like show that we are here. We are part of the community. Um, and so I think that just having this space for them to give them a culturally safe space, a linguistically safe space is very important to um, continue on with like following school years. Thank

082you. As you look at some of the data we did, we did a pre-ervey and one of the questions that we ask in all our groups is um how do you feel about school? Do you like the school that you're at? And uh if you look at the survey uh it just tells the story. Um and then we did a mid survey and what I noticed is that the disagree disappeared, the strongly disagree disappeared. And we have agree and totally agree um about how they feel about the school. And this is just some of the quotes that we've pulled out of some of that data that we received. Uh and we know when kids are dealing with strain, they have behaviors. When those behaviors go beyond what we can deal with or what happens when

083they harm the community, uh we have our RAP program. So, I'm going to let my other colleague talk about that program and how do we uh restore that. All right, good evening everyone. My name is Raone Torres and I am the lead campus supervisor at San Marcos Middle School and I'm going to be talking to you guys today about the resto of accountability projects or rap. Um, unfortunately I didn't prepare a rap song about it so I apologize about that. Um, so what is it? So uh restoative accountability project is a new approach um to restorative discipline using the power of accountability and um restoration to really change the way uh discipline looks not only for us um as staff members but also the students and um families. Um so that's we take that really

084seriously at Samos Middle School. Um so where did it start? It started from a a training that um some staff members went to including our assistant principal Ryan Ggo who brought that concept uh back home to us and expanded upon it to really uh fit the needs of our students and um really uh use use the methods that we have already at school to to to create that uh that scenario. um and why we did it. Um as a school community, we really observed that the uh conventional forms of discipline weren't really working. We saw the same kids um getting in trouble for the same offenses. Um so we really wanted to change that and u make a difference for that. Um the way we go about it is we start off with structured days

085uh where students are escorted from class to class um usually by a campus supervisor. um they'll guide them. They'll make sure they make it in class on time and they'll really just uh watch them from from sort as close enough distance to where the student is um knows that they knows their expectations. And we do that to let them know that even though they're back from from doing their either suspension or or or um other discipline that they are still not quite off the hook and that we're going to make sure that um that they stay u on top of things, build better habits and such. Um after that we move towards our accountability workshops which are uh where students stays after school uh two days a week for an hour and a half. There

086is we'll really start the whole um process. Um they will work on a a six to 10 slide presentation that includes uh what their infraction was um what they what they why they did it. um they actually have to do some research of what are the consequences not only in the school system but in the real world. What were what would what would happen in the real world um if they were to get in trouble for for these um infractions um goes into uh what they learned who it impacted um not only in the school but maybe at home and then what are they going to do to uh restore the relationship back with their school community. Um so yes like I said uh two days a week um after school for uh an hour

087um we schedule a date at that time at the end of the workshop for the accountability presentation where we invite not only uh staff members such as counselors, social workers, administrators um but also the families [snorts] uh the of the student and if there was any victims for that infraction we invite them as well as well as their families. Um going through the presentation, students students will immediately um recognize the power of accountability because they see the faces of all the people that were impacted by their actions. Um they go through um all the all the components that they wrote about in their um presentation through the workshop and it really you see the you see the impact in their faces. They a lot of times get emotional. Families will get emotional and um it

088it you you feel you feel a sense of of of um you feel a sense of restoration in the room um because the student is then congratulated and introduced uh reintroduced them to the school as a better version of themselves. Um we we we either give him a handshake, face bump. Um we let them know that from this mo from this moment on you are now you are now a better like I said a better version of yourself. Um we no long we will no longer not that we did we do not see you as what you did but how you um accomplished this restoration. Um, at Samarles Middle School, we want every student to feel like they belong there. And um, that's that's that's what we do, all staff members, and we want the

089students to really know that they're all welcome, and we want them there. Go Lance. And so, just to conclude, yes, like Dr. Johnson mentioned, it is a lot of work. Um it it it takes time, effort, but most importantly the love that we have for our kids. Um because again we know that the systems past systems didn't work, historic systems didn't work, the data shows um that if you do continue to do something that is not working um and you're getting the same results, it's time to make a change. And so we felt that we did that and we're ever evolving as a school, but we're in we're going in the right place because we are seeing the positive outcomes. And that's pretty much it. That's San Marcos Middle. So, thank you. Thank you very

090much. I have a question about the the rap um which I love. Um I'm curious um what our what our process is for the students who were who were victims um and how we help them feel safe at school. And also because like I know as a board member a lot of times when something gets to our level we'll have someone say you know well nothing happened right and we know something happened but we can't really tell the student or the family what happened and so that's a really disempowering feeling for someone who's been victimized to not know that that this was dealt with. And so is there are we thinking about what how we can also bring back and and and have a student feel psych psychologically safe at school when they've been the

091victim. Yeah. So, as I mentioned, um we're still evolving in our systems. And I think one of the systems that we talked about and coach can kind of um add to this is um having check-ins with the students and having a trusted adult that if they're feeling a certain emotion or they're feeling unsafe or they're feeling like um they haven't gotten quote unquote justice in a way but and they have to speak to someone. Um the social worker is really the place and the space for students to get that support. Um the counselors as well, you know, someone that they trust that they can feel like they can pour out sort of like their pain but also know that they have someone that is there to support them. Um coach, I don't know, we we

092we talked about and he can add to this a layer of how do we then um connect to our rap process. I think one of the big things that I do in in this process is it's the opportunity to grab some supports right for for both the student and the one who's the victim. Uh and then uh do a safety plan and talk about some some places on campus that you feel safe. One of those places is our wellness room which a lot of kids participate in. And as much as activities we do and keeping an eye on them, there's going to be people who don't feel safe and talking about that and asking the question, how do we help you feel safe and what are some things that we can do to help you

093there? And so, uh, that's how we combat that piece of it. Yeah. And just out of curiosity, let's say a student has been suspended because they got in a fight. Um are there re-entry contracts that the students have to complete with the counselor uh administration and the parent? So the the re-entry program is with the AP, okay, a counselor and myself and we talk about those supports. And so one of those things we we do is a Y trial. Uh if if the Y tri is not suitable, then it may be um a one-on-one session, four or five sessions with me and talking about the strains, something that that kid is going through and now there's an evaluation um to saying, "Hey, does he need outside supports if we cannot support him here and the

094parents are there also and those are other means of corrections?" Absolutely. Absolutely. Because it may be something that's bigger than we can't handle in the school setting. Um again, we talk about strain. uh it may be divorce, it may be a lot of other things that's going on outside of the school that's in coffin of behaviors. Question. I just want to say I'm I'm so impressed with this team. Um you can kind of see as you're interacting together like you're a very cohesive group that is working towards a shared mission here. Um the SLC's I love. I told you that when we were visiting, but um are they expanding them out next year to more? I'm so happy you asked. [laughter] Yes. So, um, we we've piloted a small group of just four teachers, five

095teachers, sorry. Um, and so we're going to expand to the entire sixth grade. Um, because it's not fair that one group gets to get all the love, right? We want them all to feel loved. And so, yeah, we're going to expand it for next year. So, we're really excited. Right. Teen got this. I got to check out the wellness room and it was pretty pretty sweet. Um, I loved it. I love the presentation. I I thought the way you described rap was, you know, we have this kind of idea of like truth and grace and and it seems like it's this perfect balance. Um the comment that you made about real world consequences when the students are researching, hey, if you did this when you were 18, out of high school, in the real world,

096like these are the consequences. And I think as a parent when you talk to your own child about that, it often times falls on deaf ears, you know, because your own child hears that over and over again. Well, if you did this when you're 18, blah, blah, blah. But to have you guys doing this and and partnering with parents and giving these students this kind of sobering reality like, hey, this this could have happened in the real world. And I just think that's a really powerful message. So I'm really thrilled to hear that these kids are getting this and just that internalization that will happen um as they make better decisions and you know preventing um preventing things that might otherwise happened if they didn't have this incredible program. So thank you. Just one last

097comment. Thank you. I mean innovation at its best creating self-awareness because we all know that that's very key for growth and to your point I I mean if they don't have that self-awareness there's no growth. So thank you. [clears throat] Thank you everyone. I love this by the way. Taking it back to my school communication session. Have a good evening. Per education code 35145.5 and government code 54954.3, members of the public have the opportunity to provide public comment on any agenda item as well as any non-aggenda item that is within the subject juris matter jurisdiction of the board. Per board bylaw 9323, individual speakers will be allowed up to three minutes to address the board on each agenda or non-aggenda item except for our union representatives who have five minutes. In accordance with board bylaw

0989323, public comments will be limited to 20 minutes per topic. Per the Brown Act, members of the board are limited in their ability to respond to statements or questions made during public comment. Unless an item has been placed on the published agenda, there shall be no deliberation nor action taken. The board may one acknowledge receipt of the information report and comment, two, refer to the staff for further study, or three refer to the matter refer the matter to the next agenda. A recording is made of all open sessions of the governing board. Again, on behalf of the board of education, we thank you in advance for helping us conduct this meeting respectfully. Susie, do we have any speakers? [clears throat] Yes. Uh, allegedly, Audra touch that thing. It's dangerous. Um, three minutes. Yes. Okay. I

099was going to try and time it, too, because you guys should have a timer over here just in case. Is it where there should be Oh, okay. Thank you. Yeah, that's nice. Oh, there we go. There you go. Yeah, that's nice. That's really beneficial. Got to know what time you got, right? Um, so it's just interesting to live in a world where I feel like I don't belong in this world and I don't. None of us should because it's inverted and it's just sad to see all of the things that take place. And we all have a choice on how we deal with things and what we do with the information that we get. And you know, there is I feel like children are being robbed of their innocence. It's like I have so many

100notes. I don't even know how I'm going to say all these things. But, you know, it's like watching everybody do the pledge of allegiance. I don't engage only because I feel like people are just going through the emotions and the motions of just doing it and they don't really think about why we do it, you know? But we just kind of it's like the group gets up, they say those things. Does anybody really mean them? I mean, we say one nation under God, but we're trying to erase God. We call it a republic, but then people call it a democracy. So, it's all the this confusion and it's sad because I feel like we encourage confusion with children. And you know, when we do things like put litter boxes for children to say that they're

101a cat, it's sad because it's like they'll never be that. And and the fact that we want to encourage that is actually doing a disservice to the children to do that because it's not as though they're going to grow up and and you know live in a a a cat house or a cage. I mean some people actually do and it's it's actually sad to see. But I mean we can't even define equity. We don't even know what a woman is. I mean how how do we you know determine what that is when all of a sudden it's like we got to redefine it. We can't just say you're a man and you're a woman now. Anybody can be whatever they want. And it does it stirs confusion. It stirs um you know issues that

102you know I mean how many people really were comfortable with their body or who they were when they were a kid. You know we go through these things where we're confused every we all have been. And then as you grow up you start to understand things differently. But when we encourage the confusion, we're setting up for society to just it's like we're not going to know what anything is. We're always going to constantly be redefining what things are. And we can't live like that. We can't just, you know, and it's like when you guys talk about safety for all, but it really isn't because if if a little girl comes to a counselor or somebody and says, I don't feel comfortable, you know, changing with a boy, it's like, well, if you don't, then why

103don't you go down the build, you know, to another building and change. So, I mean, you can't say that you're making it safe for all when we're selecting who we're making it safe for. And in that, it's like we are, you know, if children are our future, what kind of a future do we have? if we're just sewing confusion and you know telling them I mean that'd be like me saying I can go be the president if I want I'm just going to go take over the White House because that's what I identify as that would be crazy for a lot of people so I mean we just need to be mindful of these things thank you Carol Gendel Pleasure to talk to all of you this evening. My name is Carol Gandelle and I

104do not have any children in the San Marco school system nor grandchildren. My grandchildren are in Oceanside. I come here as a resident and a taxpayer to thank you for making the school system a quality space for learning and a safe and welcoming place for all students regardless of gender, race, immigration status, or any other qualification. All are welcome. I'm proud that my tax dollars support quality teachers and strong curricula for both academics and all the extras, music, drama, sports, and steam. It all matters. Thank you and keep up the good work. Thank you. Thank you, Dale Plutennic. Good evening, uh, board members. Uh, Vice President Andress Martine, uh, Stacy Carlson, member Heidi Heric, member Lena Mume, Superintendent Dr. Johnson, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Campbell, and other assistant superintendents. My name is Dale Ziggmanic and

105I'm president of the San Marcos Educators Association. SMA represents over 10,000 members, not only teachers, but also counselors, social workers, nurses, speech language pathologists, school psych psychologists, and certificated staff. SMA wants to thank the board for its continued commitment to public education and public educators. I wanted to start by saying we support all students and we are SMA. Part of the reason I always mention my full name is to honor my Polish immigrant grandfather who I was named after. I was technically named after both my grandfathers. Um, but they had a long and lasting impact on me. Why I honor them, why I mentioned this and bring this forth in the message is to show in a way how I started my career to support all students. Um I learned from my father who was

106in a system that they called sink or swim for educ for English and I thought I as I become an educator I want to change that. I don't want to be part of the model. Obviously that went away when I started in education to a way where we support our students. And so when I first started in San Marcos I taught what was called sheltered English history to immigrants from all over the world in a way to support their English acquisition. That was the job title, right? But beyond that and how we would support students is helping them a climate to a new culture and a new country and showing them love and support and seeing in every one of those kids my family, my story and seeing, hey, I may not look like you,

107but I know your story. I've heard your story. I've lived your story with my family. I know what it's like to struggle. And this is just a part of the example of what educators do in our in our district. We do so many things to support our students, such as run clubs during lunch and sometimes after school. help organize and sponsor events such as our elementary track meets and our talent shows. Others help run AP seminar research events where students share their research projects to the community. We have award-winning music programs where our high school band directors spend hours after school with their students providing a thriving arts education. Our high schools also sponsored the Empty Bowl Project which was started by one of our educators at San Marcos High 16 years ago to support

108our students to learn the importance of giving back, the ripple of good and how that affects everyone. This is an event where high school students learn to help others by producing and donating their pottery. Often times towards the end of their school year, this is their best work. They put in so much effort and they give it away and they give it away and the idea is to raise proceeds for student for this pottery, excuse me, to earn money for local food banks to address food insecurities in our community. And some of those groups are San Marcus Boys and Girls Club to mention one of many over the years they've done this. Um these are some of the large events we do as educators in San Marcus. But we also do small events, right? So

109it it goes beyond reading, writing, arithmetic, science, art, and music. Our teachers are here for all students, to support our students because we believe in the future. And we and as we always say, we do not choose our public. We educate our public. And as public educators, we're here to continue to support our students, to be those good listeners, to give that good advice, and to care for our students. We don't ask our students who they are. We ask them how we can help them be their best. We guide them and support them to be good humans. We acknowledge and thank the board for also supporting all students and voting for that. We support all students. We are SMA. Thank you very much. Thank you. It's Billy and I'm not going to say this right.

110Is it Key Kendall? Kirk Kendall. Okay, thank you. Hello, my name is Billy Kirkindall and I'm a student at Mission Hills High School. I want to thank the board, cabinet members, as well as Superintendent Dr. Johnson for allowing me to speak tonight. Is it is an honor to speak about a topic that is essential to the well-being of the entire student body. I under there I understand there has been concern and controversy in our community around safety and education. Oh, sorry in our community around how our district supports student safety and inclusion. I want to personally thank the district on behalf of students like me for making safety and education a number one priority. Here are some important facts that may help clear up information or misinformation about issues on bathroom policies. Under the California

111Civil Code 51A, all persons in the state of California are permitted equal accommodations, facilitations, and services on any public business establishments on the basis of sex, race, origin, religion, and disability. This means that schools as public institutions must ensure all students have access to comfortable restroom facilities. Creating an environment where students are taught to respect one another's differences is how humanity as a whole will thrive. Another serious issue affecting LGBTQ plus students is discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. Did you know that 56% of California's queer youth reported facing discrimination in the past year alone? As a result, 35% of these kids seriously considered suicide. 35%. These statistics are heartbreaking yet very real. They show us to keep fighting for compassion, inclusion, and support. I am eternally thankful that we as a school

112district care about the well-being of all children, especially minorities. Thank you for your time and your commitment to create a safer world for all students. Your efforts are deeply appreciated. Thank you, Theo Drier. Drier. Hello, my name is Theo Dryer and I would like to thank the board, cabinet leaders, and superintendent Dr. Johnson for allowing me to speak today. I'm currently a junior at Mission Hills High School. Early into my sophomore year, I finally went through with changing my name at my school. This was absolutely not a decision I took lightly, and I cannot express how valuable it was to me to have my name at my school actually represent who I am. Likewise, I'm so grateful that I was able to find safety and community at my school when I didn't feel elsewhere. feel

113[snorts] safe elsewhere due to my queer identity. Furthermore, I think it's extremely important for all students to have their school remain a safe place, especially if they feel unsafe in other aspects of their lives. To really demonstrate this point, the Trevor Project found that LGBTQ plus young people are less likely to attempt suicide when they have access to affirming spaces. Overall, queer students deserve inclusive spaces where they able to learn in a safe environment just like any other student. That's why current policies on discrimination in schools have been so important and why it's crucial to maintain them as a community and an educational board. Thank you for continuing to protect all students. Thank you, Kristen Weaver. Good evening. In late March, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, that's at the federal level, announced

114an investigation into a school district whose board meeting is occurring right now. A mother had filed a civil rights complaint with the Justice Department after reporting what had happened to her daughter. She was told, and I quote, "The district and the board are united with our leaders and educators on this issue and have a shared commitment to upholding the law." End quote. A criminal referral has now been made two days ago against the Derfield School District in Illinois. The same violations that they are accused of committing and being investigated at have also occurred in our school district at the same middle school level. Stephanie Turner was blackarded last week for refusing to submit to orders by a male official in a fencing tournament, USA fencing. They're now under a state and federal investigation. One week.

115One week ago. And by the way, two men are now competing for the men for the women's title. George Wallace, the governor. Yeah. At that state, said he was just following state law by physically blocking the door. Federal government won with that one, didn't they? Ask him how that worked out. But why don't we ask Sonia Shaw of Chino what happens when your board finds the courage to stand up to do not what is easy but what is right, what is true, what is good, you win against the California attorney general and the state superintendent of education. And I respect all people regardless of their race, gender, identity. If you're 18, do whatever. You have that right. I believe that in my soul. I have since I was the kid in middle school who was

116bullied. I know what it's like. And I've been bullied for saying, you know, this is not something I'm comfortable with. And I'm being tired of being called terrific names for speaking up for girls and women. I stand for Stephanie Turner and for Kim Russell who was fired for saying no and for Brook Sleser and for Paula and for Riley and for all of the girls that are being told, "Shut up. Take it. be quiet and just go down the hall and change if you're not comfortable. How is that equity? And the federal government is investigating California. I'm just saying. Will you be next? Thank you. As well. All right. Well, thank you again. I will make this shorter because I have not reviewed the uh sexual education policy. Is my time is not going. It

117is my turn. Okay. Thank you. I want to be respectful of everybody's time and of the board. I have not had a chance to review this uh in full. So I will just piggyback on that. Uh from what I see that's in violation of Megan's law. And after the board meeting two months ago, last time I stood before you respectfully, and I showed and told 20 friends of mine, 20 mothers what was happening in the school district, they are all looking to transfer out homeschool and go to other places, other states. In fact, how much are we going to do this and affect the We'll do whatever we want. These are girls and boys and everybody deserves yes to be safe and respected and loved and the right to an education. I have spent the

118last two decades of my life doing that. I was trained in downtown Seattle for crying out loud. I have given my heart and my career and I don't know how much longer I can do it in this state because I have to sit through trainings and be told what a horrible person I am. And God forbid I never had children. I wanted them and I never was able to. But God forbid if I had a daughter and I look at my 5-year-old friends and my 10-year-old friends and my 16-year-old friends and what they're being told to sit back and take. When Mrs. Atwood, when I was seven, said, "If a boy touches you or makes you feel inappropriately or comes in to your restroom, tell us." But now it's just take it, be quiet. And

119if we aren't going to inform parents about sex offenders, because that's how it sure seems, we need clarification on that. I promise you, I will do everything in my power to tell every single parent I know and I know thousands of them. Not in my official capacity. I have thousands of friends because I have lived here for decades now. And they were shocked to find out what was happening in this district. They said, "That cannot be possible." And I called up your resolutions and I said, "Why don't you ask your neighbors?" And you know what? Stephanie Turner kneelled. Stephanie Turner kneelled. And we're done. We are done. We will not be bullied anymore because nobody deserve to be bullied. Not our queer students, not our women, not our men, not our boys, not our girls.

120Thank you. This is for item 10.8. Allegedly, Audra, the two these last two. And Audra, we'll just have you go through your other speaker cards, too, after you're done as well. Okay. Yes. While she's doing that, I just wanted to to our last speaker. Um, I was following your comments. Since I heard I heard references to several other states and school districts, I just want to be clear that if there is a particular complaint about anything specific in our district, I want to make sure you get in touch with our our HR assistant superintendent. Okay. So, we can follow up. Thank you. Yeah. Unfortunately, it's only safe if you agree with what's going on. So, um if you disagree with things, it's um not acceptable to people. And so that's why people can't feel safe

121is because if you don't go along, you can't get along. Um, as far as the sexual predator um, information goes, it's very confusing to me as to why this item is even being brought forward. Makes me question whether or not a pedophile has been hired or has come onto the school campus and the information is attempting to be hidden and circumvented. Um, the fact that, you know, we're even messing with the policy to make it so that the information is hidden if there is like a sexual predator like if you find an email or social media or whatever it is. I mean, so what happens if that person is contacting students or harassing a teacher or an employee and that information is then being hidden from the people because as according to your Megan's law

122policy, it was like you have to tell people if a visitor is coming 14 days before. And so now it's like, well, we're going to hide that information. that is actually putting people in danger. Not only children but also the employees and teachers and it's questionable as like I said why it's happening now and what's questionable too is when I came last time to talk about it was really sad that I was the only one talking about it and I would have been today until I asked her to speak about it. Nobody really knows that this is going on and as a victim, it's terrifying to me to think about hiding a predator's information to potentially create more victims. And when he addressed you, sir, um about whether or not you have mandated reporters and

123that you are uh trained to see if somebody is being abused and that if they are, you would call CPS, which is also terrifying because they are kidnapping children from their families and ripping them apart, putting them in the Pinsky Center, which is abusing children, has been for decades, and there's about 150 cases. So to call them is is very negligent. But what does that have to do with a sexual predator coming onto the campus? That makes me feel like what you're saying is that if we're going to be hiding this information, a student or somebody could be sexually abused, but good thing you guys are mandated reporters so you could report the abuse to CPS. That has nothing to do with sharing information. So, I mean, are we setting people up to be abused,

124but at least you could report it? I I just don't understand. and the fact that the sheriff was being very um obscure and uh about the information like asking what does this mean as far as the policy goes? They were very not wanting to share information and that's what's so disturbing is that we're willing to protect predators over victims. Um Dr. Johnson, can you um clarify just for the for these two um and for anybody who's who uh wants to know what this policy is about? Um and specifically, we do not have allow sexual predators onto our our campuses. Yeah. Do you want And we do not tell girls not to to let us know if they're being abused. Of course, absolutely. Um this policy is being updated um tonight um as advised by the

125California School Boards Association. Um they advised all school districts statewide to update this policy um governing sex offender notifications to align with current law. Um the district's policy has not been updated since 2005. So as such it is recommended that the board adopt the updated policy uh model policy from CSBA. Um, the policy is updated to clarify that under California Penal Code 290.45, a district employee to whom sex offender information is disclosed to by law enforcement may only disclose such information when authorized to do so through the law enforcement entity. The district works very closely with law enforcement to ensure a safe school community. And in matters such as this, the district is required by law to defer um to direction from law enforcement. Um the district has been informed that California Penal Code gives

126law enforcement broad discretion to share a wealth of information um about a sex offender with the community. They are allowed to share their name, address, even photographs. Um, however, under a 2019 law, um, it states that law enforcement may only share internet identifiers with the community in three instances when they are investigating a sex related crime, a kidnapping, or human trafficking. Um, so since many school districts, including our school district, um, partner with law enforcement to provide school resource officers, the California School Boards Association wanted to ensure that school district policies clarify that school district law enforcement and administration must align with penal code and have the s same standards that uh, apply to law enforcement agencies. when we allow people on our campuses, how do we check? Yeah, absolutely. Um, so our visitor management

127system, um, and whenever you walk into one of our schools at the front desk before you're allowed anywhere on campus, you must check in with that system. It's called Identic. Um, any visitor must um, swipe their driver's license um, through the system. It will automatically pop up to the office staff to identify um, and it it specifically checks Megan's law. So it will flag on the screen um and um notify the school staff that um that person is on the sex offender registry. So that would they would never be allowed on campus. And I'll just say with respect to hiring practices, all of our um employees are are required to finger do fingerprinting through the DOJ. And maybe you want to discuss that real quick. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh part of our onboarding process is

128um as you shared uh to do background check, fingerprint um through Department of Justice um and FBI uh clearance uh for our employees um if an issue comes up um during that hiring process of a sexual related offense and that would uh preclude somebody from being hired. there's an issue with a current employee and there's a charge or a conviction uh that takes place of a sexual nature then that's a conversation obviously that we have at that point as well then potentially then terminate employment at that time. So would that information be hidden from the public unless law enforce if law enforcement told you you can't tell anybody you're not going to tell anyone. So, okay. So, what you just heard was the was the penal code and you heard about the DOJ HR code.

129So, I don't I don't know that I can go through individual examples on on any matter that you're that you're talking about. I mean, there would be they would we would be very easy to answer. You would tell the public or you wouldn't. It's a yes or no. There's no kind of in between. And that's the problem is that information is being hidden. And as somebody who is a victim of a predator for that not to be something that is known, it's very dangerous. Can I just say uh Sorry. Go ahead. Well, it's just it's it's very scary to think about that we're going to allow this the that you would want to protect that information from anybody. Yeah. I I think I I'm going to I'm going to ask Susie to start your time

130for your next comments and we'll we'll carry on. I just want to make sure that you understood that this the board policy that's on the consent agenda for this evening is alignment with penal with the penal code. These aren't rules that we're making up as a school district. These are these are board policies that that are we are required to align to penal code. So that's why they're there. It's very disturbing to see that nobody's willing to stand up for what's right. Everyone wants to just comply with whatever's going on. and your attitude is crazy because I'm asking questions that are very reasonable. Can I just say that in the background in close session, we address these and believe me, we we we have generative questions that address some of those issues that you're talking

131about. And if my colleagues are in disagreement with me about what I'm telling you, it's like we think about a lot of different things to address that. So, just know that we do appreciate your comments and for sharing your life story with us. Your your testament to resiliency, your testament to be the courage for those voices. I mean, I appreciate that. I really do. But my point though is that we do ask those generative questions behind closed doors. But it should be in front of everyone. It shouldn't. That's the problem is everyone wants to do things behind closed doors. Nobody wants to be transparent. And that's an issue because even like what I was saying is I'm asking about what's going on. You're talking about mandated reporters and and reporting sexual abuse. I'm talking about

132sharing information for a predator. So I I understand that. But this is more important to me because it's sad to see how people want to be a gatekeeper to information, especially with a predator. And it's like you're talking about safety for all. I mean, those are just words because I'm really glad as you said, Megan's law. But yeah, right. But you're still engaged in hiding information. And that's disturbing because even if a law enforcement officer told me not to tell my neighbors that there was a sexual predator in the neighborhood, you think I would abide by that? That's the problem is everyone acts like their hands are tied and oh, I got to do it. No, you don't. It's a choice. Everyone has a choice as to what they do. And it's a disservice to

133children or anybody that could be a potential victim to just go, "Well, I'm being told to do it." Right? I mean, because you're It's just It is insane that this is even something that we're talking about and that you guys are so irritated by me asking you these questions. Not you necessarily, but him and her. And you can laugh about it all you want, but until you're a victim, maybe you should stop and think about what it would be like if that was your child. It's a problem because nobody wants to talk about the real serious stuff. And that's why everything is going to in the world is because we're ser like letting people push us around and say, "If you don't agree with this, oh well then you're not welcome." But we want to

134make everybody feel welcome. But that's only if you agree with what's being said. And it takes a lot to stand in the gap for people. And I'm damn proud that I can do that because I don't want other victims to come forward and to have to go through the same stuff. And if I could save one victim, then great. But I would like to make it so that there are no more. Not that we're just doing things because it feels good. because it it you're welcome in the community because you're going along with the insanity. There are not a million genders. It's male and female. She's part. So, it's very disturbing that even people can identify as a cat. We're going to give them a litter box to go to the bathroom in and say

135that that's okay. That we're going to, you know, talk about wellness and different things of children and do wellness visits at home. That's very terrifying to think about because are are they equipped to actually do a wellness visit? And if something doesn't look right at home, do we call CPS so that then those kids get kidnapped? Because I have a friend whose children were kidnapped and right now they're at the hospital because the caretaker, they're not sure if her little three-year-old whose vagina is swollen and red was because of the caretakers that they were put in their care. It is so sad to see that people are like, "Children are our future, are they?" Nobody seems to care enough to make sure the children are being traumatized and abused. But what we are willing to

136do is protect predators on a massive scale. And that should show you that what is going on is not right. And the fact that you guys can look yourself in the mirror and be like, I'm doing a good job making sure everyone's safe. All while I tell girls they don't matter. You're only safe if you agree with what's going on. You're only safe if you are comfortable changing in front of a boy. If you're not, it's not up to us to make you safe, right? It's very appalling. It's like, what is a victim? Like what what's a victim? Do we know? Because it's like we're creating them all the time, right? But we're saying they're a victim, but you're not a victim. And how can we arbitrarily decide that? Yes, everyone should feel welcome, but

137we shouldn't do it at the cost of another human being. So, if you have kids who want to who identify as another sex, give them a whole other bathroom, but don't force them into the girls restroom or locker rooms to change with them if they feel unsafe because that other person feels unsafe going into the men's room. So, it's like, well, we're not going to make you do that, but you're going to force girls to capitulate. And if not, and go down the hall. What is that telling them? It's telling them they don't matter. And then you say safety for all and that's just words because you're dismissing victims. Okay, that's that's what I have for um 10.13 10. Sorry, your last card is 10.18. 18. Yes. I just wanted to Did we already do

1389.4? Yeah. I had to start the timer. That's fine. I just I just wanted to give you where you're at. Thank you. I appreciate it. So, workplace violent prevention plan. This makes me think about when you guys are saying that you're going to protect kids and then we have sexual harassment going on with teachers, which bleeds into kind of sexually harassing kids if there's cookies that are made into penises, right? Things like that. And where teachers can sit there and make cla like come forward and say, "I'm being sexually harassed." And nothing happens for years. Like it'll take years for something to happen. So if you can't protect from violence in the workplace, and I would consider that violence, then how can we trust that you're going to protect kids? You know what I'm saying?

139It's like everything's kind of just pushed back. I mean, we should be in a place where it's like if you are having trouble, it should be addressed immediately. It shouldn't be like, well, we'll wait a few years and then like, you know, let the kids be engaged with these penis cookies and, you know, just watching it happen. It just it's very sad. And there are actually students who are of the LGBTQ community who do harass the children that are not telling them to go kill themselves. Why don't you just go kill yourself? You know what I mean? Like it's good. So it goes both ways. We want to act like it's only one way or this way. And that's not the case. And I just it's sad to see that, you know, like peers can

140do that to each other and it's accepted. And I don't know that there is a safe place. Like if you're not going along with the agenda, do you really feel safe going and talking to social workers that are encouraging the confusion and encouraging boys to be girls when they never will be? And if you feel unsafe with someone like that, it how do you feel safe going and telling your own counselor if what they're doing is is trying to make sure that this group feels safe, but this one doesn't. So, you know, I hope that you guys can really like search your hearts and your souls and um think about the decisions that you're making and why you have to give such nasty looks. It's and you can't even speak into your mic. It's like

141nobody can hear you. You don't care. You have this attitude and it's sad because it's like children should matter enough to you that you'll do anything to stand in the gap, not just go along with some agenda that's being pushed down the pipe. You have a choice and you will be rewarded or punished for your choices. So, it's up to you on what you do with that because I don't want to meet our maker and be like, "Yeah, I was encouraging the abuse of children and the protection of predators." So, Godspeed. Thank you, Ricky. Kendall. Sorry, I said I can't say it. What? How do I say it? Kirk. Kirk. Thank you. Nervous. Hi. Good evening. Um, board member, Dr. Johnson, cabinet leaders. Um, my name is Ricky Kirkindall. For those that don't know me,

142I've been an ed specialist with our amazing district for 19 years. And I'm here to express some concerns that are um rising in the special ed community because our district is shifting to remove all specialized academic courses in middle school and high school. Um, so it's happened at Santa Leo and they're slowly trying to roll it out. Um, it's already happened at Santa Marcos High School as well. So, um, sorry, this change has been promoted as inclusion and even ideal. But when I speak to district staff members, other teachers, I hear that we're failing many students because frankly, some of those students need a different placement and they're not getting it. Teachers are worried, students are struggling, and parents are often left out of the conversation completely, simply presented with only the co-taught model at

143an IEP meeting. Right now, we have some high school students that were given SAI classes that are now mainstreamed fully in a co-taught class um comprehending reading at a first to third grade level. And um because of their multiple complex disabilities, they're being asked to be mainstreamed. And the education specialists in those courses supporting usually support 10 to 15 students in m that are mild are now expected to support those same 10 or 15 plus a core of like maybe three or four more that are really have extensive needs. And so with that gap they're not able to reach all the kids and help all of them learn and um get their high school units. And so these kids are failing emotionally. Many of these students what we're noticing is um there's actually a decreased

144in discourse. they're speaking less um because they try to stay under the radar in those classes and not be noticed. Uh many feel like failures and they're labeled themselves as dumb. Um so how is this really best for kids? This new model not only isn't individualized at all, it's not an IEP, uh which is what it was meant to be. Uh so when district leaders decided to that code was best for all kids without speaking to students or staff, their unique needs are often unmet now. And when they struggle, as many are starting to really show up um as strugglers, there's no other option for them. Uh with the new model, you either stay in the code talk classes and fail or we change everything and you're not doing much, but you're just going to

145get a pass. And uh or fail for years and then the ex the the other alternative extensive is extensive needs. This is not how inclusion should work. Inclusion means meeting students where they are, not placing them into an structure that appears equal on surface but fails at practice. So I implore all of you to not take the narrative that special ed leadership will give you. Please take time to speak directly to teachers, parents, and students. Listen to their lived experiences. Hear what's really happening on campuses. Um we all want what's best for students, but doing what's best requires honest dialogue, accountability, and the willingness to admit when something isn't working for all. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Dr. Campbell, were you Go ahead. I think we might. Yeah, you though. I was just going to

146ask if we could get a report on um this. Thank you. What the Yeah. Thanks, Madison Evans. I have um three of I think three of you on the same topic. Briana, Barbie, and Madison. Barbie. Okay. Good evening. Thank you all for your time. I know we're getting into the late hour. I'm Barbie Morgan. I am here on behalf of my daughter Grace Morgan who is a junior at um San Marcos High School and on behalf of our entire cheer team and on behalf of coach Heather Janiac and I just wanted to say uh for all of our athletes in the program at San Marcos High School. Um the firing of Heather Janiac has really hurt us. I know it's only been a couple of weeks, but we're still in the middle of our stunt

147season, and that decision so abruptly after she's done so much for our program is really unfortunate. If there's anything I can do to have that um changed, I would gladly. Um the communication around this decision has been handled very poorly. Uh the parents have just been told that there's a change in direction. And when Heather came on board three years ago as our freshman coach and then pretty much had it dropped on her to be our head coach, she's done nothing but step up for our entire program. She has shown that um that inclusivity is a priority to her. My daughter is on a 504 plan. I know that there has been a parent that stood here in November and made false accusations about Miss Janiac not being inclusive to a child that was on

148an IEP program. Um, my daughter wrote a letter that I forwarded uh to you, Dr. Johnson, and to you, Dr. Campbell. I hope you had the time to read it this morning in addition to the letter that I wrote a couple weeks ago. And I think Grace did a phenomenal job, a very heartfelt job in outlining what her coach has done for her. And I hope that that is truly taken to heart, not just for Grace, but for over 60 athletes that we have on our team. And this loss is going to be significant. Um, she elevated our program. She didn't just step in and take over. She elevated it for our sideline cheer program, for our competition program, and then with stunt this year. She um encouraged community events for our girls. She has

149shown tremendous leadership and she opened the door for athletes with the stunt program to pursue some different avenues with college. The parents and the athletes from this program are devastated and I think I can speak to that and we have other parents in the room tonight and the ones that have also written letters. There really has been no explanation. Um, she is there for our athletes, not only their physical safety, but their mental well-being. And I think a coach and an educator that truly cares and gives their heart as she has done for three years. And to have no explanation why she is no longer the coach is unfair to her and it is unfair to our athletes. In closing, I just like to rec recognize that she has led with tremendous integrity. I am

150forever grateful and I really hope that you look at the leadership at San Marcos High School, mainly the athletic director and the principal and how this was all handled. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Uh either Briana or Madison's name. I wrote notes before I came because I have a hard time with public speaking. Uh my name is Brianna Batanzos and I'm here tonight just not just as a parent who is heartbroken and outraged over the dismissal of Coach Heather from San Marcos High School, but as someone who has witnessed firsthand the positive impact she had on our cheer program and more importantly our kids. My daughter, who is on an IEP, has been on the cheer program for three years. When my daughter started high school, she had never cheered before. She's grown

151tremendously. Not only is she on the varsity cheer team, uh, but she's been proud to represent the school on their competition team. Uh, this growth not only came from my daughter and her commitment and hard work, but from the great coaching given to her by Coach Heather. Uh since my daughter's freshman year, she's now a junior. This program has gone through nine cheer coaches. The only constant from the start was Coach Heather. She showed up. She stayed. She built something real, something strong, something inclusive that was meaningful to our students. Her leadership created a team where kids feel valued and motivated to grow regardless of their learning backgrounds. Removing Coach Heather sends a wrong message to our kids that people who stand by them and helped them grow can be taken away without listening to

152the full story. It's a devastating message to students and families who finally felt like they had someone in their corner. It's a mistake and it's wrong. Our kids deserve better than instability and politics. They deserve coaches who care, show up, and who fight for them. And that's exactly who coach Heather is. Um, our athletes are asking for their coach that has been taken from them without any explanation. The only coach that has been their support and constant from the beginning that has made a lasting impact. I urge you to not ignore the voices of the families who have witnessed Coach Heather's dedication and impact firsthand. Please listen not to just complaints, but to the truth. This coach has changed lives. She's certainly changed my daughters and she deserves to be treated with fairness and respect.

153Thank you. Thank you, Madison Evans. Hello everybody. Um, my name is Maddie. I go to San Marcos High School. I'm a current junior. Um, I didn't write any notes. I just wanted to make this short and sweet. Um, so I am a member and I have been a member of the San Marcus High School cheer program and Heather was just an amazing coach to us and really helped everybody grow in not only their skills but their leadership skills. Being a cheerleader is really um about involvement in the school and the fact that well what um we've been told is that it has an involvement with what the parent came here to say about her child and how um she wasn't very involved in the program. And I just wanted to firsthand talk about that because

154um the child is one I tried to get to know her. She is so sweet. Um and we tried our very hardest obviously she had um impaired cognitive functions and in her community it's hard for people like her to be involved in programs and I know this has been brought up. So, we wanted to make sure that we gave her every opportunity to be involved in this program. And we would um play games with her at the beginning of practice. She was involved in our sideline cheers. She was involved with um dances if she would like. Um the only thing she wasn't involved with was stunting. I don't know if you guys are familiar with cheer, but stunting is um when you are seriously holding other people up in the air. And obviously there are

155very like there's consequences. Um we have strict rules of people when you fall because obviously you're not going to hit a stone every time it goes up. Um so we just didn't want to put her in any position especially with her um just you know what she's been given. If she has impaired cognitive functions obviously we didn't want to put her life or other lives at stakes. I know I did research on this. It's like 65 or something percent very high number of all injuries or female injuries in a sport comes from cheerleading. A major one being concussions. And concussions are a really serious injury. It can lead to brain damage, especially if you have multiple. It leads to, you know, impaired cognitive obviously. So, we just didn't want to put her in any position

156where it could hurt others or herself. And um upon learning like this um Heather our coach, she obviously wanted to include her more because the parent came here and said that she wasn't very included. So we would play games with her and just everything to make her feel like that. So I just didn't understand how that was a reason for coach Heather to be fired. So yeah, we just really want our coach back. She's made such a positive impact. So thank you. Thank you. There are no more speakers. Next, we have reports by board members. Does anyone have anything they would like to report? Thank you. Uh, I look forward to Monday. I think Monday at the California Center for the Arts is a an event uh for music for all the schoolwide districts. So,

157I look forward to going to that personally. Excuse [clears throat] me. Action item 9 uh.1 publicly hearing public hearing to hear comments from the public regarding the financial provisions of the collective bargaining agreement between the San Marcos Unified School District and San Marcos Educator Association SMEA regarding seventh period at Lamada Academy. Aaron. So on tonight's agenda, the board will consider approval of anou with theme and the government code requires school district to publicly disclose the provisions of any bargaining agreement, including the costs that we will be incurred prior to considering its approval. We estimate that theou regarding middle school 7th period at Lamada Academy will cost approximately $30,000 and impacts the next year's 2526 budget only because thisou is in effect for one year only. This public hearing is now open. Susie, is there anyone

158who wishes to speak regarding the public hearing? This public hearing. There are no speakers on the public hearing. This public hearing is now closed. 9.2 Two, disclosure of collective bargaining agreements of the San Marcos Unified School District and the San Marcos Educator Association regarding 7th period at Lamidada Academy. Aaron, to comply with the government code, documents have been prepared that disclosed the costs of this agreement and the disclosures were provided to the San Diego County Office of Education for their review as required. Do I have a motion? I have a motion to approve the disclosure of collective bargaining agreements of the San Marcos Unified School District and SMEA. Second, moved by member Hen Herrick and seconded by member Carlson to approve the disclosure as presented. Student board members, please say your vote. I I. All

159in favor, say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. 9.3 Memorandum of understanding with the San Marcos Educator Association, La Mirada Academy, 7th period day. Joel, Dr. Garc. Yes. Board members with an increase from uh a sixth period student day to a seventh period student day. Uh teachers teach six periods instead of five. This means that students have more core elective options, which is of course is a good thing for for students. It also means however that teachers um would get less preper prep time. Uh thisou helps mitigate um that by agreeing to a total of four prep days throughout the school year for middle school teachers. Um and so this is anou that we signed with SMA and this is an action item with a recommendation to approve theou as presented. Do I have a

160motion to approve the memorandum of understanding by and between the San Marcus Unified School District and SMEA? So moved. Moved by I apologize. Who was that? Moved by member Miam. Seconded by member Carlson to approve theou as presented. Student poor representatives please say your vote. I I. Thank you. All those in favor say I. Uh opposed. Motion carries. 9.4 declaration of need of fully qualified educators. Dr. Garcia. Uh yes. Uh board members, on an annual basis, the board is required to approve a declaration of need for fully qualified educators prior to uh staff submitting it to the commission on teacher credentiing or the CTC. Doing so allows a district when absolutely necessary to hire teachers who require an interim credential while they complete the additional credentiing requirements. Having this flexibility is important especially in our

161identified areas of high need uh which those being uh special education um and in certain years math and science. This is an action item with a recommendation to approve the declaration of need as presented. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the declaration of need for fully qualified educators? Moved by member Carlson. Seconded by member Heric to approve the declaration of need for fully qualified educators as presented. Student board representatives, please say your vote. I. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. 9.5 appointment of representative to the San Diego County Educational Facility Authority. Number two, Dr. I mean, sorry. Yeah. This facility authority number two is the board that governs the operations of the North County Regional Education Center. This facility that we are in, um the facilities authority

162consists of representatives from the San Diego County Office of Education and the San Marcos Unified School District. Um tonight, it's necessary to appoint a board member to serve as a director um position through June 30th of 2026. That's a two-year commitment. Um, board member Andres Martin currently serves as the alternate director. Um, the facilities authority typically just meets once per year to review the agreement we have um, in place and to approve the budget related to the operations of this facility. Um, so the next in-person meeting for this um, facilities authority is will take place on Friday, May 30th at 100 p.m. in the business services conference room upstairs. So, we do need someone that's available during the day. I'm sorry about that. [laughter] Okay. What if we happen to be out of town this

163time, like May 30th? Um, well, then you just Andre, is it good? It is a Wednesday. Oh, it is. Oh, no. Sorry. Sorry. My apologies. I'm looking at April. It is a Friday. Um, I could see if I could take some time off work if nobody else. I could I'm I'm fine to do it usually. I just can't do it that one. Sorry. Well, you want to say the alternate then you would do it this time. You could say I'll be the alternate. [laughter] Yes. So, I'll I'll go ahead and nominate myself, I guess. Well, do you want to be the alternate and you'll go on the 30th? You'll go this time, but I can do it the rest of two years, right? This time, so you'll stay alter. Correct. Yeah, that's fine. Okay. Okay,

164that works. Thank you. Yeah. So, I'm making the nomination for member Miam to become our um our representative. Uh, do I have a motion to approve the declaration? Oh, no. Sorry, my apologies. Do I have a motion to approve the Thank you, Representative S. San Diego County Educational Facilities Authority number two. Thank you. I made the motion seconded by uh member Carlson to nominate member Mume as the SDC CEFA represent. Student board members, please say your vote. I I All those in favor say I. Thank you. Motion carries. Any opposed? Motion carries. Right. 9.6 uh appoint citizen bond oversight committee members. Aaron. Okay. So after the passage of the measure JJ bond measure in November of 2024, the board is now required to establish a citizens bond oversight committee pursuant to the requirements of the

165strict accountability in local school construction bonds act that's in the education code. The purpose of the oversight committee shall be to inform the public concerning the expenditure of bond funds and to ensure that the funds are appropriately spent on projects listed in the ballot measure. The oversight committee will meet quarterly and staff will present bond expenditure reports and facility staff will review construction project um progress on each of the projects. The committee will also review the measure JJ audit report which will be conducted by an independent audit firm hired by the board and they will publish an annual report of the oversight committee's activities that will be presented to the board and be available to the community. Um the district solicited volunteers from the community to serve on this committee through an application process and

166we want to sincerely thank the 23 community members who applied for their willingness to serve on this very important committee. Um for those that we were not are not able to appoint to the committee right now um we will keep those applications on file and we may be reaching out to them again in the future in the event that we have a vacancy um on the committee. Um, appointed committee members will serve for a two-year term and can be reappointed for up to three consecutive terms. And we expect this committee to operate until the last B bond dollar is spent, which will likely take up to 10 years. So, we anticipate many more community members will have an opportunity to serve on a committee um over the life of the bond. um an internal review

167committee which was comprised of myself um executive director of facilities Tova Corman um our public information officer Amy Ventatulo and my administrative assistant Lette Michelle. Um this internal committee met and has confirmed that the required membership criteria has been met and is recommending appointment of the following six individuals to serve on the oversight committee. Um, Eric Hall, Robert Redfield, Vanessa Smith, Jamie Chamberlain, Stephen Kildu, and Paul Sass. Um, no applications were received from anyone from a bonafide taxpayers association. So, it's our recommendation at this time that that position remain vacant and the district will continue looking for ways to fill that particular position. Um in addition um it's recommended um that the board appoint Eric Hall to serve as the committee chairperson for this initial formation of the committee. And the first meeting of the

168bond oversight committee will take place on Tuesday, May 13th at 3:30 at the district office. Are there any questions or discussion from the board regarding this item? I had some some just questions um to go through. Um I guess I've talked to Andy about it, but I have the recruiter in me is very hard to like say that I know this is the best group when I don't know I didn't see any applicants. I didn't see any applications. Um I understand it's a staff thing to review, but it's challenging for me to say that I know that that's the best. And so what I have to go off of is school affiliation um for the parents specifically. Um and I think that it would benefit us to have parents from the schools that are going

169to be under construction in phase one. Um so there's some the two parents that are on this list are high school there. I guess she's she's a middle school and high school, but the majority of the schools that are going to be going through this project are elementary. Um, but there's Knob Hill, Woodland Park, and Paloma. So, my my request would be to sub out um either Jamie or Vanessa for um Stephanie Carol. Um she's the one I thought of because of she's Woodland Park and Twin Oaks. I think that um Vanessa Smith and Jamie Chamberlain worked really hard on the Prop JJ campaign to get the bond passed and if anybody deserves to be on that committee, they do. Also, Robert Redfield worked very hard um as as parent volunteers um to get the

170bond passed. And so those three, I think out of anybody that applied um have uh my my full support because they actually worked to help to help get this through. So, I would not be in favor of swapping that. I think we have a different view of oversight. Um, if if it the point of it is to meet quarterly review construction projects, there's a benefit to having someone that their kids attend that school more so than someone that just really wanted the bond. Um, I [snorts] appreciate the help that they did on it to get it here, but we're already here. Um, so I don't think it's a congratulations here you to be on this oversight committee. I think there's a purpose for it and you want to make sure you have the people that

171have the best skills. Um, so that's well the committee is really there just to make sure that what was put into the bond is what we're doing. Um, they're not putting giving input on architectural drawings or paint colors or or you know landscaping or anything. They're literally there just to, you know, as as we're going along to say, "Okay, well, here's how much we said we were going to spend. Did we spend it on the things we said we were going to spend it on?" Um, so I think that the scope is is maybe different. Well, Erin said to review construction projects, like the progress of the projects, they'll be reviewing them just so they're aware of what the progress is. but their goal their um their role really is to look at the expenditures.

172So that's the main thing. We'll be sharing expenditure reports for each project. Um and so we'll just show like be showing the expenditures for Woodland Park. And so they're just they're they're there to see what make sure that we're spending it on that particular school and only for construction purposes, not on salaries and things like that. Of course. So although I do appreciate your points in terms of the SCBOC, this committee is formed for this is law or how is this committee for your role by the district? How is that? Yes. So um so we are required to have this and um we do need to uh appoint u members to this committee tonight because um under um the education code we had 60 days from the point that the dis that the board certified

173the election results. So that hap that took place on um February 13th. So our 60-day timeline to appoint members to serve on the committee um is up on on Monday um April um 14th. So we do need to appoint members tonight. Um really the only requirement um is that we have seven total members and then there are five specific um roles that they must um be eligible for. Okay. And so that is the business organization, the senior citizen um organization, a parent um of a current a student currently enrolled and active in a PTO. That that particular individual is Robert Redfield. um a parent of a student currently enrolled and then we can have two the two atlarge members. So so the the particular um category that you're discussing is is parents, right? And so

174um those you know could could be any could be any parent. So is there any different individual than the three that the our internal committee is recommending? Is there any sort of waiver that we could wave the vacant spot under the taxpayer organization to request and say, "Hey, can we add one more parent?" Yes, Miss Carol, I'm glad you asked that. That that is um so um what what the board could do tonight is add um accept the the six members that were recommended. You could add a seventh one as well. That could be an option. Um and then what we do at the first um committee meeting is we'd ask if anyone on the of of those parent members or or the atlarge members um would be willing to um become a member of

175a taxpayers association. Um so did a little bit research um to become a member um of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, which is the one we prefer, um is $99 a year. Um, you could they could also become a member of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association which is from California. That one's only $15 a year. Um, and then the Taxpayers United of America is a $25 a year. So, we we could ask um if we if the board would like to appoint a seventh member, we could ask if somebody would be willing to do that. So, as well I personally feel comfortable comfortable with that. I I mean I don't know Stephanie Carol personally, but I've uh enga interacted with her in the past and I mean I think she would be a wonderful parent

176with excellent input if we could do that if she joined the I mean I'm not one to tell her do what to do but I think that's a wonderful suggestion personally. Do we have alternates? When I was on the prop committee it was an alternate. Yeah. So, so the when the committee met, we did um like kind of pencil in a few alternates um because just in case because I then I called everyone because it had been a couple months since they actually submitted their application. So, I called to make sure that they were all still interested in it. In our case, they were um but we did kind of just um tag a few names as as alternates based on their application. So, share that information. So, if we're required to have seven people

177and we've got to do this tonight, um, but we don't have our taxpayer person. Yeah, it doesn't have to be because it's it's common actually to have a vacancy on your bond oversight committee because people, you know, their life changed and they can't participate anymore sometimes. So, um, so under the bylaws, um, when we meet, it just has to be a a a quorum of the members that we have at that time. So, Um, so it could just be six or even five. Um, and then we would just meet um, make sure that a quorum of the appointed members were present to conduct a meeting. See if I could say this right. How would we be able to contact Mrs. Carol and maybe follow up with that? Is she from the alternate? I don't I

178don't know how to ask that, but Well, I think it was going to be proposed to all three of the Okay. If any of them would be open to it, right? Sorry. Sorry. I'm not sure I understood that, but proposed to all three of which that were that are that qualify as under the parent group um to see if any of them would be open to doing the tax thing. Um or it could be the two at large members uh the other ATL large member could do it as well. I think that's fair. I mean, I think they both raised great points. Um, not to bring up the Coreo thing, but those parents have strong feelings about what's going on at their school. And I think it's important to be able to have parent representation

179when you're discussing what's going on at your school. Um, and it sounds like these other two ladies were super involved um, in advocating for it. I I think that seems fair and reasonable to have them all join and then see which one of them is willing to do the taxpayer thing. So, if I'm I'm tracking as you as you're deliberating, I think what I'm hearing is that the board is considering or recommending accepting the six that are before you this evening and then uh adding Stephanie Carol to as a seventh, which means you would have to get in touch with her and see if she's still willing to to serve. And if she is, then you've got seven. And if she wasn't for some reason, we could um um select someone else and we could

180bring that back to the May board meeting as well. And then you've got your seven. And then of those seven, your first conversation is we will ask if one of them is willing to volunteer to become part of a taxpayers. Am I hearing that? I just want to make sure I'm hearing that right by common consent. that too. Great. Do I have a motion to appoint the following? I'll put in your word. Six representing seven point. Yeah. Uh representives for the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee. Moved by member uh Heric and seconded by member Carlson to appoint those just named as a representative representatives for the citizen bond oversight committee. Student board members, please say your vote. I I thank you. All those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Um

181I just want to apologize. I had to take a phone call cuz my mom was calling me. My I'm I'm a single parent this week as my wife is on vacation. So, I apologize for taking that phone call. Um consent agenda 10. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda for discussion purposes? Moved by member M. Oh, sorry. Carlson, second by member Miam to approve the consent agenda for discussion purposes. Are is there any discussion? Okay, thank you. Um, student board representatives. Oh, wait. Move by. Moved by Carlson, second by Mium. Uh, school student board representatives, please say your vote. I I. Thank you. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Agenda item number 11, uh, information agenda. Uh revisions to existing governing board policies. BP3311 BS

182uh BP. Oh, bids. Oh, sorry. BP3311.1 uniform public construction cost uh accounting and board policy 3580 district records. Aaron. Okay. Okay. The bids policy is being updated to clarify that bidding procedures are required to be established in accordance with and meet the requirements for bidding procedures specified in law. Additionally, the policy is updated to incorporate material from the accompanying um administrative regulation related to awarding contracts and instances when bids are not required because the majority of that content is related to governing board actions and therefore more appropriately placed in the board policy. Um the uniform public construction cost accounting policy is being updated to add language related to author authorization by the governing board to declare that a project can be performed more economically by employees of the district. When um after the first invitation

183of bids pursuant to informal or formal bidding procedures under the uniform public construction cost accounting act, all bids are rejected. Um and then finally the district records board policy is being updated to include protection of records against damage, loss or theft which may be caused by cyber security breaches. Additionally, policies being updated to require the superintendent or designate to do two things. Um, one, ensure that the employees receive information and training about cyber security, including ways to protect district records from breaches to the digital district's digital infrastructure, which we we do that training, by the way. Um, and second, um, to report cyber attack that impacts more than 500 students or personnel to the newly established California cyber security integration center. In addition, the policy is updated to clarify that if a breach in security

184of district records has resulted in the release of personal information, the superintendent or designate is required to notify individuals in a very specific manner. 11.2 two, college and career access pathways CCAP um dual enrollment partnership agreement with Palomar Community College July 1st, 2025 to June 30th of 2028. Dr. Campbell, good evening um board members. Um tonight I will bring forward to you um our updated renewal agreement or our CCAP. So just to give you a little background um the college and career access pathways or CCAP uh was established with um AB288 as well as is now established in education code 76004. Um and the goal of the CCAP is to expand dual enrollment opportunities for our high school students. Um I next slide I will tell you specifically what dual enrollment is. Um but with

185these opportunities really the focus is on increasing CTE education and preparation for transfer for students improving high school graduation rates and also helping students achieve color college and career readiness. So dual enrollment um I like to clarify the difference between dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment. So dual enrollment is when high school students take college courses. They are taught by college professors. They are college courses, but they are taken on their high school campus. Students receive both SMUSD credit um and Palomar transcript and Palomar transcript credit. Um I put that weighted in parenthesis because our dual enrollment courses are college courses. So like an AP course that receives a weighted score a weight um five out of four credits. Um, a dual enrollment course as well receives five out of four. Tuition is free with our

186dual enrollment courses and the district covers cost of course materials. So you may hear that students also can take courses for free at Palomar, just any courses. Um, that is concurrent enrollment. So, a student who goes to Palomar, picks their own course, just goes into a regular Palomar course, um they don't have to pay the Palomar course fee. However, they do have to do their own course materials, and that is not an agreement with the school district. So, with our CCAP agreement, um the dual enrollment courses that are offered have to be agreed upon by both our school district and with Palomar. So this year or this upcoming year um these are the courses that will be offered. Introduction to to criminal justice in the fall uh semester. This is a course that is for

187um that is part of an associate degree for transfer pathway. Um, the next three are part of Cal Gettys, which is the California General Education Transfer Curriculum, meaning that these are courses that can be used for transfer to CSU or CS or or to UC. Um, those courses are the art of cinema, United States history from a CHO perspective, and principles of economics. The next three are part of a Palomar HVAC certification program. Um we are offering three of the six courses um that students are able to take for a work ready certificate. Um and these are all part of HVAP. Um we piloted this program with our Twin Oaks uh students. They loved it. Um and so we are happy that we are able to now bring it um to our other high school

188high schools as well. So it will be offered um in the fall at Mission Hills as well as at Twin Oaks. Um and then we have two courses that are for college credit uh cooperative education which basically um is um workforce um and supervision of going into the workforce work experience um and then college success. So taught by college counselors helping students get through or learn about how to get through college successfully, time management, um how to take a test, that sort of thing. In the spring semester, we bring forth criminal law, introduction to law, and legal ethics. All three are part of the law, society, and public policy um associate degree. Um art of cinema, introduction to art and principles of economics and um uh Chuco perspective, history from a Chuco perspective, the second

189um course of that. And then cooperative education, again, work experience as well as managing stress and well-being with a focus of how do you manage your stress and well-being as a college student. Um, so our CCAP agreement steps, it does follow a very um kind of structured um way it is presented to you. So it's presented to you in April as anformational item. it comes back to you um for approval in May and then the same CCAP agreement goes to the Palomar board where they also have to have the same process. They receive it for information, they approve it um and then it is approved fully. Every year there is an addendum that is added to the CCAP with new courses or changes in courses. So you will hear about those um each year if

190we change the courses. I am open for questions. Okay, I have questions. Sorry. So are these the only qu classes um offered in this or is this are these the new classes offered in this? These are the only courses that will be offered for dual enrollment. Okay, gotcha. And are they the curriculum is does the curriculum come from Palomar to one of our teachers? So that's kind of how they are Palomar horses. Gotcha. On campus on campus. Gotcha. Okay. When it comes to um um our bargaining units, how does that pan out? Um we have a dual enrollment committee actually that works closely with our that works with our um labor partners. Um and so they go through the courses, they agree on the courses um and these are the courses that come. And then

191I'm really glad that it's reflective uh the cal getsy versus I gety and this is very up todate very new so I'm really glad to see that as well. Uh yeah I just had a question. So you mentioned it's tuition free for the students. How is the how are these funded? How are the um California actually um has a one of their goals is to increase um dual enrollment. So it is free for K through 12. K through 12. We don't have a lot of K's in but it is free for um students who are in um K through 12. Um so even my daughter who did a concurrent enrollment course, she was able to go that fee is waved. Um that $47 credit fee is waved, but she we still have to pay for

192the other pieces per unit. Per unit. Per unit. Yes. Per unit. um the courses the courses um the instructional materials for the courses we receive a dual enrollment grant um that we are able to pay for we are able to pay for the instructional materials um as well as there is some money set aside in our LCAP as well is there typically a waiting list for these classes there is seems like a amazing opportunity yeah so part of the process do these students uh for uh the dual enrollment, do they have to also fill out a uh K through2 verification form or is that separate from concurrent enrollment? Concurrent enrollment, they have to fill out the form because we have an agreement with Palomar through the CCAP. They don't have to fill out that separate

193form. However, they do have to become Palomar students and they have to go through the registration process for with Palomar, but we help them through that because it's part of the dual enrollment process. So, their counselor or admin designate would sign off on that. I I signed them. That's why I know. Thank you. Any other questions? What a wonderful opportunity for all our students K through 12. Yes. And I'll I'll be Yeah. And I'll admit when I was actually in eighth grade, I did take a philosophy class through Palomar and a math class. Um so, but it wasn't free back then. The next regular board meeting will take place on Thursday, May 8th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. in the media center of the North County Regional Educational Center, 255 Bo Avenue, San Marcos, California 92069.

194This meeting is adjourned. Thank you.